


The Big Picture

by ratchetzelda



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, Affairs, Angst, Cursed Personas, Drama, Eventual Romance, F/F, Family, Femslash, Hyperion Heights, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-23 05:36:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 20,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13183437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratchetzelda/pseuds/ratchetzelda
Summary: AU. Hyperion Heights. Roni Belfrey and her wife Victoria are the odd couple in town, but they make things work. When the infamous Mallory, of Mallory Investments, comes to town, Roni realises she doesn't have to make things work anymore.





	1. Stress Isn't Good For You

“Another rough day?” Roni asked her wife as she strode into the bar. It was getting late in the day, only a few regulars were around. She knew Victoria must have been stressed, because these days she only drank in the bar when she was.

 

It was nothing like when they were younger. They felt so different now.

 

“You could say so.”

 

Roni watched her perch herself at the bar, then went about fixing her a Cosmopolitan.  
  
“You know, I keep saying to give Jacinda a break — she’s trying-“

 

“This has _nothing_ to do with Jacinda.”

 

Roni whipped her head around, almost dropping the glass in her hand. She didn’t take kindly to her wife’s temper, and wasn’t afraid to show it. She slammed the glass in front of her.

 

“Don’t start wi-“

 

“Sorry,” Victoria uttered quickly, her hand softly moved over Roni’s forearm.

 

There were moments, especially recently, where she felt like she didn’t even know Victoria. They’d always been opposites, _mostly_ , but there had been a spark that kept them together. Sometimes Roni couldn’t remember exactly what drew her to her wife in the first place, they were like chalk and cheese, but mostly they just _fit_. 

 

Until recently.

 

Roni would even think about breaking it off, until just a gesture would reign her back in. Like a _spell_ of some kind. She couldn’t quite put it into words.

 

“Apology accepted,” she had grumbled — _relented_ — as she poured her drink into her glass.

 

“Another development company bought the old warehouses,” her wife finally spilled. It sometimes got to Roni, how hard it was, for her to open up to her. “I had plans drawn up for them already, and they swept it up from under my nose.”

 

The bartender frowned. Victoria had gone on and on for months about this deal, and now _suddenly_ another company had taken over? Something didn’t seem quite right. Belfrey Developments owned almost all of Hyperion Heights - even her bar. Her wife had worked damn hard to make that happen too. There had never been any real competition because of it.

 

“Should we be worried?” She asked, leaning against her side of the bar. All thoughts of cleaning glasses were gone. It wasn’t that she really cared for her wife’s business, more that she cared for her wife - their family. If something happened to the business, well, it would effect them all. The girls, Lucy, the _bar_ …

 

“Not yet dear. Although I would _love_ to know why Mallory Investments are suddenly interested in Seattle.”

 

Of course it was all Greek to Roni, but even though she wasn’t all that clued up in what her wife did, the name rang a bell.

 

“Aren’t they from California?”

 

She remembered the name from visiting her friend Kelly, well, when they were still on speaking terms.

 

“Well — now it seems they’re wanting to make their mark on the whole West Coast.”

 

Her wife wasn’t too pleased about the idea, and had already finished drinking her cocktail.

 

Roni had a bad feeling about this. It might have meant something, or _nothing_ , but seeing Victoria drowning her sorrows hurt her. She tried to do what she thought she did best — cheer her up.

 

“Hey,” she got her attention by leaning over and pressing a soft kiss to her lips. “Work is over with right now. It’s done. Now, I’m closing up in an hour — and if you’re still awake when I get back-“

 

“You’ll surprise me?” Victoria whispered. Roni leaned into the hand that was cupping her cheek and nodded, bringing her own hand up over her wife’s and holding her there.

 

Victoria wasn’t one for public displays of affection these days — Roni missed that, and she guessed Victoria herself did too from the look in her eye.

 

“Maybe, but only if you promise not to worry.”

 

“Fine,” she reluctantly agreed. “I’ll go home and — _prepare_.”

 

She couldn’t let her wife go without another quick kiss, but, work was work even to her. Despite her wife’s fleeting visit she had a bar to run, and tables to clean.

 

 

 


	2. Pizza Offerings

Bella Notte’s pizza was by far the _best_ in town. It used to be a tradition for her and Victoria. Every Friday night they’d come here. Her wife would order some _disgusting_ topping like anchovies or pineapple, but Roni would still share it with her.

 

That was true love, right? Little things like that — she felt as though they were missing them lately. That their spark was dying.

 

She put it down to work — Victoria seemed to be stressed more than happy lately. Admittedly it worried her too, so tonight she was adamant to take her mind off of it. Her wife’s earlier agreement to a surprise from Roni was her confirmation that, maybe, they felt the same about each other? About reigniting their spark.

 

They had to work on themselves too after all, and marriage wasn’t a walk in the park.

 

Pizza was the start. Roni ordered anchovies for Victoria, and walked home with the pizza box clutched tightly in hands. 

 

This was her _offering_ — not flowers or chocolates.

 

“Hey!” She called, opening their front door. She hoped Ivy was out —she _assumed_ she was.

 

“Hello dear,” Victoria called from across the living room, apparently engrossed in her laptop. Well, at least Ivy wasn’t home.

 

“You better not be looking at work things!” Roni called back as she stepped into the living room. She put the box on the coffee table, and slung her jacket over one of the chairs.

 

“ _Look!_ I’m walking with my boots _on_ the rug,” she teased, trying to appeal to how much of a _perfectionist_ her wife was. Victoria hated mess, Roni did too — except she wasn’t so _anal_ about it.

 

That appealed to Victoria’s OCD, and she peered up above her laptop screen.

 

“Not the good r-“

 

That gave Roni enough time to shut the laptop and take it from her grasp. She set it on the other side of the coffee table.

“ _Roni_! I was looking at something on there, that’s extreme-“

 

This time she cut her off with a kiss. Hard. Desperate. _Wanting_.

 

All Roni wanted was for that spark between them to be ignited again. She couldn’t live another day in this robotic relationship.

 

Much to her pleasure, her wife seemed to feel the same way again, and she kissed her back in kind. Fingers threaded through her hair, fingers that sent a shiver down her spine - she _whimpered_.

 

Roni remembered all the things they used to do together, when everything was new and they were very much in love. They never touched like they used to. Even now, even caught up in this _delightful_ kiss, it didn’t feel the same.

 

 

It wasn’t really like love — but she ignored it.

 

“Work can wait, remember?” She whispered, pulling away ever so slightly so she could meet her eyes.

 

The eyes that looked back at her were - soft? Sort of. Loving? _Maybe_. But that spark, where was it?

 

“I suppose,” her wife grumbled, leaning in and kissing her cheek. Victoria looked over her shoulder to the pizza box on the table. “Although you know I can’t eat carbs right now Roni. They mess with my metabolism.”

 

She frowned, standing up — so much for this _romantic_ idea that maybe her wife wanted to cut the bullshit. Just _once_. For just one night.

 

“Are you kidding me?” She huffed. “You weigh about three pounds. I give up. I’m going to bed it’s been an _awful_ day.”

 

Roni couldn’t handle another argument.

 

It saddened her that Victoria couldn’t either, and she just let her go.


	3. Understanding

The emptiness seemed to engulf her — she was so _sad_ all of the time. 

 

Roni remembered when the two of them were inseparable. Since their first date, they had just _clicked_. Sure, Victoria loved everything she _hated_ , and vice versa, but somehow they learned to love one another.

 

Even now. Even though their relationship felt almost non-existent. Roni loved her.

 

She just wasn’t _in_ love.

 

And that was why it got to her — she wanted to be in love with her more than anything.

 

She had done as she promised after the pizza offering hadn’t gone down as planned — went upstairs, showered, then went to bed. 

 

Not that she _could_ sleep.

 

And the house had fallen deathly silent…

 

She could see Victoria now, back on her laptop, engrossed in all things to do with _stupid_ Mallory Investments.

 

There had to be more to life than this.

 

As she stared at the ceiling, wide awake, trying to count sheep to sleep, she heard the front door open. Ivy was home after _another_ night partying. To even think that there had been a time where she and Victoria had been that way scared her. They’d gotten so - old? No, _stale_.

 

It was only because of her daughter coming home so late that her wife decided to join her in bed. It wasn’t the first time Roni had slept alone. It actually made her heart ache to confess that it was more often than not these days.

 

“Did she disturb you?” She asked in a hushed voice, still lying there - staring at the ceiling. Roni couldn’t be bothered to even look at her wife, but she could still tell that she hadn’t been expecting her to be awake.

 

“I thought you’d be sleeping by now,” she whispered back, getting into her side of the bed.

 

“Yeah, so did I,” Roni sighed, and finally turned to look at her, only to see her back was to her.

 

Her heart didn’t just ache anymore, but it _broke_ ,to know just how loveless things had become between them.

 

There were two reactions she could have had. The first would have been to scream, and shout, and argue it out. That would have meant Ivy would’ve gotten involved — and _drunk_ Ivy was actually _worse_ than sober Ivy.

 

The second, was to try, yet again, to fix what was already broken — to make things work.

 

Roni opened her mouth to speak. To tell her wife she loved her. To whisper sweet nothings in her ear — to say _anything_ at all. She couldn’t.

 

Maybe it was because, well, none of those things felt right? 

 

Instead she did the only thing she could think of, and very gently, leaned down to kiss her cheek.

 

Victoria must have sensed it though and moved. Roni expected her to pull away, but she didn’t. Her wife actually kissed her.

 

There it was again, the feeling of needing to repair this bond between them. Both sides, desperately clinging to something that was failing them both.

 

They both needed this. _Roni_ , maybe more than she cared to admit, for it was her who deepened the kiss.

 

She moved to straddle her wife, hands working at unbuttoning her silk pyjamas — since when did they even _need_ pyjamas?

 

“Roni?” Victoria whispered when their kiss broke, and Roni began to nibble at the exposed crook of her neck. She nipped that little spot she knew was particularly sensitive. “ _Roni_?” She asked again, a little more firm this time.

 

Not _again_.

 

Roni couldn’t handle any more rejection.

 

“What is it?” Her hushed voice  was reluctant at hiding just how _hurt_ she felt. When she looked at her wife, she just felt like an idiot.

 

“I love you,” she surprised her, and gently reached up to stroke Roni’s cheek. 

 

Roni in turn was flabbergasted. She could barely remember the last time Victoria had said such a thing to her, or vice versa, even just now she had been at a loss for words.

 

It tickled in her chest, was the spark back?

 

“I know,” she answered, moving her face to gently kiss her wife’s hand. She couldn’t bring herself to say it back, not right now at least, not so _easily_.

 

It seemed that Victoria understood.

 

This wasn’t all about love, at least not for Roni. This was about keeping things right — _caring_ for someone. There wasn’t passion or fire. Just one person _needing_ another.

 

“Lets just go to sleep then?” She offered, leaning down one last time to kiss her cheek. She knew they were both tired after all. Tired — and _old_?

 

“Lets,” Victoria had agreed. However tonight, she was the one to wrap her arms round Roni, and hold her through the night.

 

When sleep finally took her, for once, it was _pleasant_. 


	4. Ladies Who Lunch

Her alarm woke her. 6am. Roni groaned and turned over in bed, searching for her wife, who wasn’t there. Of _course_ she wasn’t. 

 

She laid there a while and let her senses come to her. Downstairs she could hear Victoria and Ivy talking? _Bickering_?  They were awake anyhow.

 

Last night had been odd. It hadn’t turned out exactly how she had planned, and they hadn’t made love, they hadn’t had some _romantic_ moment. Yet, for a little while at least, she had felt _connected_.

 

Victoria never held her like that. Not even _before_ — before they had fallen into this funk.

 

It was childish of her, and maybe a little pathetic, but she had rushed to get ready just so she could say good morning to her. To catch a glimpse of her before she left for work. 

 

But of course, despite her rushing, the house had fallen into another deathly silence. 

 

Roni was about to give up on hoping things would change. She was now willing to accept that their marriage had been a _complete_ disaster, and that they should just go their separate ways.

 

She  walked toward the refrigerator and moved to open in, when she noticed the folded up piece of paper with her name on stuck to the front. Victoria _hated_ mess.

 

She got out her juice, set it on the side, before she decided to unfold it.

 

_‘I’m sorry for last night. Perhaps I was a little out of order. Work isn’t great right now. I shouldn’t have taken that out on you._

 

_Lunch?_

 

_I’ll stop by the bar at one._

 

_Forever yours,_

_V x’_

 

However silly the damned note was, it proved to her that Victoria did care in some kind of capacity. They’d make it work. Everything would turn out ok. She had _hope_.

 

Roni went about her day as usual, but in a better frame of mind. She was actually looking forward to lunch, and of course wondered what her wife had in store — she was _never_ one for surprises.

 

The bar was pretty busy with people ordering food, but not completely packed. At least steady work meant the morning went over quicker. She was clearing some glasses away when she heard a stool pull up at the bar. It must have been Victoria — was it that time already?

 

“So what did you bring me?” She teasingly asked over her shoulder. Being knelt down, with her back to the bar, she couldn’t actually see her. 

 

“I didn’t know that was part of the criteria of getting a drink around here, but if it aids for better service I’ll know for next time.”

 

Oh shit that wasn’t Victoria.

 

Roni almost hit her head on the counter, she stood up that quick. 

 

“Oh. I’m sorry I thought you were somebody else.”

 

Scaring customers away wasn’t good for business after all.

 

“That’s quite alright.”

 

When she spun herself around, her breath caught in her throat. _Wow_. She was new in town wasn’t she?

 

“W-What can I get you?” She barely managed to ask — _breathtaking_ was literally the most apt word to use right now.

 

The blonde that sat at her bar was elegant, poised. Her eyes pierced through her — _undressed_ her. Her golden hair was pinned up, sophisticated, matching the stunning suit she wore — and the shirt that gave away _just_ enough.

 

God — what was she thinking? What was she _doing_? Checking out another woman wasn’t something she’d ever done, not since she married. God, she probably looked like a goldfish, the way her mouth kept hanging open. 

 

She was just _looking_.

 

“A dry martini — if you can _manage_ ,” it seemed that her reaction at least amused the woman. 

 

Roni quickly snapped out of her foolishness.

 

“Coming right up.”

 

She set about making her drink, trying not to think about those plump lips. She could feel the blonde’s eyes on her — familiar, _welcoming_.

 

“So, um, new in town?” Roni tried her best at small talk, but there was something about this woman that made her nervous.  

 

“Yes I arrived in Seattle yesterday.”

 

Roni placed a couple of olives in a glass, then set it in front of her.

 

“Business?” She asked without thinking really, all she was concentrating on was _not_ spilling the drink she was trying to pour into the glass.

 

“ _Initially_ , yes,”  she customer seemed to find all this highly amusing, at least it seemed so, by the way she was smiling at her.

 

“Initially?” There she went again, speaking without thinking — what was _wrong_ with her?

 

“Sorry — sorry scrap that — eight fifty please.”

 

She held out her hand with an apologetic smile, but the woman still just smiled at her. Why? What was so funny about this?

 

She felt like a complete idiot.

 

Roni took her money. When their hands touched though, she felt this — _spark_.

 

Oh this was so stupid, she couldn’t help but freeze though. Look at her. Drink her in.

 

This was like the old days, when she and Victoria first dated. Roni — oh she had been _smitten_.

 

Thoughts of her wife snapped her out of it, and she quickly got the woman her change. 

 

Time seemed to freeze as she handed it back to her, their hands connected again — was she doing this on purpose?

 

Roni was too caught up in the moment to realise the time, or even acknowledge anybody else was there. Until her wife’s voice seemed to appear from nowhere.

 

“ _Mallory_?”

 

Roni pulled away as if she had been burned, eyes wide — Mallory? _This_ was the woman behind Mallory Investments?

 

“ _Victoria_ — what a lovely wife you have.”

 


	5. Daytime Drinking

Roni was growing tired of games. Her whole married life seemed to be a _game_. From one thing to the next. There was Ivy, and Jacinda, and Lucy — now _Mallory_. If there was a reason for there to be animosity between herself and her wife it was always about somebody else.

 

How the _hell_ could Roni control that?

 

She’d had no choice but to leave the bar in her _hopefully_ capable bar staff’s hands. Victoria stormed out for she thought her to be fraternising with the enemy.

 

Frankly Roni wished she _had_ been, for all the thanks she got.

 

“Victoria!” She called after her. Her wife was half way down the street, stepping into her town-car. “Don’t you _dare_ walk away from me!”

 

It was rare that anybody made her so angry, but this was plain _stupid_. They hadn’t fought in so very long, although it was only because their relationship was _dying_. But now, this was more than anger — she was _tired_. It felt like the more she tried the worse things got.

 

Was it bad that she felt more connected to a stranger?

 

Was it worse when she found out who that stranger was, it made her want to _know_ her?

 

Victoria completely ignored her. By the time Roni caught up with her, the car had pulled away.

 

There was _another_ argument to be had tonight it seemed.

 

She headed back to the bar — _seething_ of course. Mallory walked past her as she approached the doorway. 

 

“Somebody isn’t very happy,” she commented. Roni’s breath caught in her throat again. She should have said something snarky to her in return. She should have snapped, or shouted, because if it wasn’t for this _stupid_ woman she wouldn’t have another fight to face with her wife.

 

But Mallory wasn’t stupid, oh no, not by any means.

 

“I know you did this on purpose,” she sighed, shrugging her shoulders. “I know you did this to get under Victoria’s skin — _congratulations_ it worked.”

 

Why was this damned woman so attractive? Even now. When she smirked — she just wanted to wipe that smile off her face so bad.

 

“Well I do like it when a good plan comes together. Although I feel like I overstayed my welcome,” Mallory headed toward her own car.

 

Roni turned around, she watched her a little _too_ closely as she walked, noticing the way her hips _swayed_. She couldn’t explain the attraction. It’d been a while since she had looked at Victoria that way.

 

And she was _pissed_ with her right now.

 

“You might have annoyed my wife, but you haven’t annoyed me. You’re welcome to stay as long as you like. Don’t leave on her account.”

 

To her surprise Mallory turned back around. She raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow at her, and pursed those _delicious_ lips together.

 

Roni shouldn’t have imagined kissing them, but she did.

 

For all she knew the woman was straight, or taken — and she _shouldn’t_ have been thinking like that anyway.

 

She stomped back into the bar, not knowing if the other woman followed or not. Either way she shouldn’t have cared. She willed herself not to care. Instead she got behind the bar and poured herself a shot of bourbon to calm her nerves.

 

“Married life driving you to drink too?”

 

Roni snapped herself around, _another_ game?

 

“What? You’re married too?”

 

“Divorced. But it nearly drove me to alcoholism,” Mallory spoke so blasé as she sat herself back down at the bar.

 

Roni felt beyond tired

“Why the _hell_ would you tell me that? In fact, what has any of _my_ business got to do with _you_?”

 

Mallory’s smirk just grew, and she shrugged, as if it was nothing. Oh how Roni wanted to wipe the smile off her face.

 

“I was trying to level the playing field — if I had known just how _charming_ you were, perhaps I wouldn’t have played this little trick.”

 

She raised an eyebrow,

“Yeah, well, seems I’m always involved in my wife’s drama somehow. Nothing new there. Don’t _sweat_ it.”

 

It was true. No matter what she did, right or wrong, Victoria found fault in it. She was at the end of her tether, and at this point, what further harm could she do right now? At least Mallory _wanted_ to be around her.

 

“Another martini?”

 

“ _Extra_ dry dear.”

 


	6. Just Breathe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smut warning.

Mallory hadn’t stayed much longer. Even though, shamefully, Roni admittedly wanted to spend more time with her. Why — she had no idea. At this point she no longer cared what her wife thought, since she had just ran out on her so easily. It also seemed Mallory had achieved what she’d came for.

 

Getting under her rival’s skin.

 

This was business, Roni realised that, plain and simple.

 

But Roni wasn’t part of this business, and that was why she felt so _defeated_. When she first moved to the Heights, it had been for a fresh start. She built her bar from nothing. She’d had no help from anyone — she had never _needed_ anybody else.

 

Now, things were different.

 

She felt like she needed her wife to merely breathe, well, it _used_ to feel that way when they had been in love. Victoria had once been the breath of fresh air she craved, and now, it was _toxic_.

 

Toxic and poisonous to even think that Mallory, could mean something, like her wife had once. Just having her there for those few minutes helped her breathe. However passive-agressive the other woman came off, Roni knew it was a front.

 

There was more to her.

 

There was more to _all_ of this.

 

She picked up her empty glass from the bar, and noticed she left her business card underneath it. She hadn’t written anything on it — it was just her number.

 

Why would she give her her number? It’s not like Roni would call — or _could_ call. She was married. She should have thrown it in the trash. But instead she slipped it into the back-pocket of her jeans.

 

Maybe she’d have to call, after speaking to Victoria.

 

Part of her wanted to go to Belfrey Towers now and have it out with her, but she wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction. She’d done _nothing_ wrong. It wasn’t her fault Mallory showed up at her bar. Victoria had _no_ right to treat her like this.

 

Despite this being the case, Roni stayed until closing time. And despite it being late by the time she got back, Ivy was the only one home.

 

“Where’s your mother?” Roni asked, peeking her head into the living room, where her admittedly brat of a stepdaughter sat watching television.

 

“ _Out_ ,” was her answer — she didn’t even bother looking up from the screen.

 

Roni was sick of this shit.

 

“Out _where_?” She snapped, having taken off her jacket she was about ready to throw it at her. Lily would have never acted like this, and she most certainly had an attitude problem too.

 

Wait.

 

 _Lily_?

 

Who the _hell_ was Lily?

 

She didn’t have kids.

 

Why did she think she had a daughter called Lily?

 

Her head spun and she placed her hand to her forehead, to try calm the storm.

 

Of _course_ that was when Ivy decided to pay attention.

 

“With Jacinda — _Lucy_ issues. Are you ok? _Please_ don’t pass out on me, I don’t know CPR and I really don’t want to get up right now.”

 

Roni looked back up at her, the fuzziness in her head subsided a little. She thought of Mallory, and the way her lips curled when she smiled.

 

“I’m fine,” she groaned, and left the room.

 

This was just _stress_ , that’s all. Things were just too much lately.

 

Roni wasn’t going to wait up for her. So she made herself a sandwich, then took a shower.

 

Was it sad that she couldn’t remember the last time they all had a sit down meal together? Like a _real_ family would.

 

Roni was just getting into bed when she heard the front door open, and the distinct sound of heels coming up the stairs. Her stomach sank when the bedroom door opened — although she had _nothing_ to be sorry about. This was _all_ Victoria!

 

“Oh — I didn’t realise you were home yet,” was all the greeting she got.

 

“Well, it’s past eleven — where the hell else would I be?” She finally broke, and snapped. There were so many choice words that bubbled up her throat, wanting to throw themselves at her wife, but she swallowed them back like bile. _Disgusting_.

 

“I don’t know,” Victoria shrugged as she began changing out of her clothes, her back to Roni.

 

That was it?

 

After that _show_ at lunchtime. After not speaking to her for the rest of the day. _That_ was it?

 

Roni flung the bedcovers off herself and stood up.

 

“Why did you leave?!” She yelled, hot tears prickling at her eyes. She could have thrown something at her, screamed, pushed her — but she wouldn’t. Even now. Even in this shitty situation, she _cared_ about her.

 

“You were talking with _that_ woman.”

 

What a _feeble_ answer.

 

“I had no idea who she was! She was a customer, like anybody else — you know shooing people away is _bad_ for business.”

 

Victoria’s eyes narrowed, and she stepped closer to her. Roni could see the  way her lip quivered — how _dare_ she be pissed off right now?!

 

“You should have made her leave!”

 

“You never gave me a chance,” Roni snapped back, the gap between them closing in ever so slowly.

 

“I saw the way you were looking at her.”

 

“I wasn’t looking at her in any particular way,” alright, that was a little bit of a lie. Roni shamefully had been looking a little too much. But who was to blame her? 

 

Her wife it seemed.

 

“It’s not like we ever _fuck_ anyway.”

 

To her surprise Victoria raised her hand, as if to slap her, but she stopped before her palm came into contact with her face. Time seemed to go slower. Roni saw a flicker of hurt, of the woman she used to be, behind those eyes. She pitied her, for the briefest of moments. But then anger kicked in, soon replaced by desire.

 

She’d teach her a lesson.

 

 _Nobody_ threatened her!

 

Nobody.

 

Roni kissed her hard, pushing her back against the bedroom wall. 

 

Her wife seemed a little stunned at first, but she felt those hands in her hair — tugging and _pulling_.

 

“Fuck me then,” Victoria panted. When Roni pulled away to look at her, she saw it again — the spark in her eyes.

 

She didn’t need a further invite. Her mouth descended on her neck, biting and _claiming_ her again. Her hands ripped her shirt open, and buttons flew across the room.

 

She pushed the garment off over her shoulders, letting it fall to the bedroom floor. She let her hands snake behind her wife and undo her bra, pulling that off too in a moment of haste. Soon her hungry lips descended upon her nipple and she sucked hard, earning a hearty moan from Victoria.

 

“ _Roni_!”

 

Roni moaned against her flesh. Her tongue lapped against the small bud in her mouth. Swirling and teasing her. Each little suck earned a further moan.

 

She was lost. It had been too long, far too long, and never so intense.

 

Lucky for her Victoria had already taken off her skirt. All it took was one hand to slip inside her damp panties — oh she was so _wet_.

 

Her fingertips parted her folds, and she gently teased her clit. Victoria jolted, so Roni moved back to gauge her reaction, although her fingers continued to work her.

 

“Do you want me to stop?” She asked, almost breathless herself.

 

Her wife shook her head.

 

“Never.”

 

Roni wanted to say how she loved her, in that moment, but the words wouldn’t leave her mouth. Instead she kissed her and slipped two fingers inside her tight heat.

 

She set a pace as they kissed hard, _desperate_ , wanting. Roni fucked her, curling her fingers deeper inside with each thrust. Her palm ground against her clit now — _relentless_.

 

She watched her, panting hard, as she came. Silent. Breathless. _Amazing_.

 

“I love you,” Victoria was the one to whisper, when she came down from her high.

 

Roni pulled away, smiling gently.

 

“And I you,” was about all she could muster, before she left her wife to compose herself. She stepped into the bathroom to clean herself up.

 

The next thing she thought about was Mallory.

 


	7. Tension

It had been days since they were last intimate. 

 

Roni thought it would have made things better, but in all honesty, things were worse. Victoria had distanced herself, buried herself in her work, and although there hadn’t been any more arguments, there hadn’t been much of anything else either.

 

They barely saw each other, let alone _talked_.

 

She kept thinking of Mallory. To her knowledge she was still in town, but she hadn’t seen her since that fateful day. She kept wondering — had she thought of her too? Was there really a connection? Or was it all in her head?

 

Oh, she was a married woman, she shouldn’t have been having these thoughts — but Roni needed something more than this.

 

She fantasised about bumping into Mallory. What would she say? Would she say _anything_?

 

She wondered what she’d wear, did she always look as _beautiful_?

 

Thinking of her made her feel whole.

 

That’s why she had kept her number. Why she put it in her wallet. Why she kept taking it out, as if she would call it. Sometimes she even typed it into her phone — she just couldn’t bring herself to hit dial.

 

Roni sat on one of the barstools, toying with the business card in her hand — _Mallory_. Shit she was all she thought about.

 

“Are you open?”

 

Roni almost fell off the stool when she heard her — she hadn’t even heard the door open.

 

“Yeah —we’re open, it’s just a little dead,” she laughed awkwardly. It was mid-afternoon. The lunchtime rush had ended and the nighttime regulars weren’t ready yet. 

 

“What can I get you?” She asked further, managing to step behind the bar. Mallory looked as beautiful as that first day, in fact so much so she thought she was hallucinating. _Damn_ — married or not nobody like _that_ would ever look at her twice.

 

Her eyes raked over her body. Today she wore a pencil skirt instead of a pantsuit, but her hair was still tied up, and her shirt was still as revealing.

 

At least to Roni.

 

“ _Ahem_.”

 

She was snapped out of her thoughts when Mallory cleared her throat.

 

“Are you quite alright?” The other woman asked, clearly amused — she must have been gawking.

 

“Y-Yes. Yes sorry. Zoned out for a moment there. What can I-“

 

“A dry martini.”

 

Mallory perched herself on the stool Roni had been sitting in. Roni busied herself, making her drink with shaking hands — it was proving difficult.

 

“Is your wife talking to you again?” The blonde asked while Roni’s back was to her. 

 

“I’m sorry?” Roni didn’t mean to come across defensive, but she _was_ curious as to why the other woman was asking.

 

“Well, she clearly wasn’t happy the other day when I was here. I assumed the two of you must have gotten into some sort of fight.”

 

Assumptions? Yeah right. Mallory was playing a game, and Roni wasn’t going to let it continue.

 

“Well,” she started, putting the glass down in front of her, she started pouring her drink. “Not that it has anything to do with you, but _yes_.”

 

Oh, what was she saying? She shouldn’t have been telling her anything. She ought to have been loyal to Victoria — and she didn’t like the way Mal smirked at her.

 

“But I really don’t want to be part of this rivalry shit. I don’t enjoy playing cat and mouse, my wife might — but not me.”

 

She met her eyes as she finished her sentence, and she swore her heart almost stopped. Mallory was looking right back — unafraid. And there was something there, something more. _Desire_? 

 

“Then tell me Mrs Belfrey — what game do you like to play?” she was teasing her. _Flirting_ with her?

 

Roni’s mouth suddenly went uncomfortably dry. Her head span. She felt hypnotised, like she was in some sort of trance. She couldn’t control the fact that she was leaning closer, and _closer_ , to the other woman. Close enough that should she have wanted, she could’ve leaned in and met her lips.

 

Met her lips with a _kiss_.

 

“I don’t play games,” she breathed — the air felt like it had been sucked from her lungs.

 

Mallory’s smile sent a pleasant wave of pleasure down her back. A _tingle_. A piece of hope.

 

The woman was _fire_. She was fire incarnate.

 

For just a second, an image flashed across her mind. _Fleeting_. Only brief. It left as quick as it came. But in that image she was a young girl, and she was kissing Mallory. All unsure, and heart-racing. But it was so _real_.

 

Like she’d lived it before.

 

Impossible.

 

“I see,” the other woman whispered, but Roni was still under her spell. “I like that. I prefer a woman who is direct.”

 

She preferred _women_?

 

“Me too,” Roni confessed, licking her lip nervously. “If I said I had thought of kissing you, it wouldn’t be a lie.”

 

She was cut off entirely from her fantasy when Mallory bridged the gap. Her lips met Roni’s cheek, leaving a small red stain.

 

It _burned_.

 

Eyes wide, Roni pulled back, guilt settled in her stomach. She hung her head as she clutched the side of the bar, fighting to stay upright.

 

It had just been a peck — nothing — but it was _everything_.

 

“Hey,” Mallory was soft this time, and Roni felt her hand come under her chin. Tilting her face upward.

 

She should have pulled away. Should have ended things at that. But her heart didn’t want to.

 

Roni searched her face, and found she needed to see what she saw.

 

A smile.

 

A _genuine_ smile.

 

“It’s ok. I shouldn’t have done that.”

 

Was Mallory apologising?

 

“No — don’t be sorry,” she started — she didn’t want her to apologise.

 

Things turned awkward, and suddenly so _real_.

 

“I’ll admit, I find you very beautiful Roni, and despite my connection to your wife — I don’t like seeing how unhappy you are.”

 

Roni frowned,

“But you don’t know me.”

 

She had been happy once. She had loved her wife. _Had_.

 

“I’d like to get to know you?” Mallory was genuinely speaking now. Roni could tell. “Even — as friends?”

 

“Friends?” Roni scoffed — at least she was smiling again.

 

“Yes. Even as _friends_ Roni Belfrey — there’s something about you I like. Even if I can’t kiss you.”

 

Oh God. Was she _blushing_? It had been years since anyone made Roni blush, yet here she was, shy, coy, and weak at the knees.

 

“Well, perhaps we could arrange something.”

 

“A date?” Mallory asked, finally paying attention to her drink. It seemed she couldn’t take her eyes off the glass — was she nervous?

 

“Well, a — _friend_ date?” Roni offered, finding it best to stick her hands in her pockets. At least she wouldn’t do anything weird, like reach out and touch Mallory — God she wanted to. It was like she was being drawn to her.

 

Mallory looked back up at her, and raised an eyebrow,

“When?”

 

“Well, how about tomorrow night?”

 

“What will you tell your wife?”

 

“Oh — I’ll think of something. Just, meet me here at seven?”

 

“Seven it is.”

 

 


	8. Just Friends

She’d told Victoria she was closing the bar that night, that was her excuse for being out so late. Not that it would have mattered. Even on nights when she didn’t close the bar she was always home alone lately. Victoria loved her work more than her family it seemed.

 

Not that it should have mattered to Roni, not anymore. She was _betraying_ her, in a way. Even if there was nothing romantic going on — despite her thoughts and feelings. She was lying to her.

 

And she didn’t even feel guilty about it.

 

Mallory had filled this void inside her. A void that she’d been trying to repair — and failing to.

 

Maybe she and Victoria just weren’t meant to be together anymore?

 

They hadn’t talked about it.

 

They hadn’t really talked at all.

 

So, as agreed, she waited after her shift for Mallory to arrive. Seven o’clock sharp. So as not to arouse suspicion with her staff, she didn’t bother changing — but she still freshened up in the  bathroom. 

 

A little lipstick did wonders.

 

Mallory had clearly made more of an effort than she had. As soon as Roni clocked her, walking toward the bar, her breath caught in her throat. It wasn’t the first time that had happened to her around the woman, she truly was the definition of breathtaking.

 

“Hey!” She greeted, having grabbed her jacket and slung it over her shoulder. Roni walked around the bar to meet her.

 

“Well hello — fancy seeing you here,” there was something both sweet and flirty about the way Mallory spoke to her. It almost made her blush.

 

 _Her_.

 

Blush.

 

“My driver is waiting outside. Do you want to just go?”

 

“Sure, I’m not on the clock anymore so I’m afraid I can’t make you a cocktail.”

 

Mallory smiled, it seemed genuine, and it made Roni all _warm_ inside.

 

“Damn — I should have stopped by earlier then,” the other woman played along, touching her arm. Roni didn’t pull away.

 

It felt right to have Mallory escort her outside. Arms linked. Side by side — almost like best friends, or _lovers_.

 

“So where are you taking me?” Roni asked once they were both seated in the back of her car. Much like her own wife’s, it was sophisticated — not like the bike she used to own.

 

“Well it’s a surprise.”

 

Roni couldn’t help but noticed the way Mallory’s face lit up. Was she genuinely interested in her?

 

“Can’t I guess?” She teased back. Whatever this was between them felt nice, and _right_. They just _clicked_.

 

“Well I suppose you can, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you.”

 

Roni pouted.

 

“It’s _different_. I don’t know if you’ll like it, but I have a _feeling_ you will.”

 

They drove for what felt like forever. Roni couldn’t help but look from Mallory to her watch every so often. She didn’t want tonight to end at all, but it was already nearing eight. She worried about the time.

 

Her worry subsided when the car stopped, right beside the docks?

 

The driver opened the door for her, then for Mallory. Roni stepped out — they were at Lake Union.

 

There were no restaurants here, or _bars_. So of course the only other logical thing she could think of was that Mallory hired them a boat here — or maybe she _owned_ a boat.

 

“You didn’t buy me a boat _already_?” She joked.

 

Roni looked at all the different yachts jettied up here — they all seemed so _expensive_. 

 

Lost in her thoughts she didn’t realise how close Mallory got, until she took her hand.

 

She gasped, sneaking a sideways glance at her.

 

She was smiling.

 

“Well, it’s not _your_ boat, but it’s _a_ boat. And I hope you’ll like it.”

 

Roni already liked it, more than Mallory could ever know. Even just standing here, with her, just felt so right. Like she was _home_.

 

“I get seasick,” she joked, squeezing the blonde’s hand. She turned to face her, butterflies danced in her stomach — she was _shaking_.

 

“It’s a lake,” Mallory teased back, her hand seemed to shake when she brushed her fingers over Roni’s cheek. It made Roni’s skin tingle.

 

“So?”

 

“Stop teasing me,” the blonde breathed.

 

They were drawn together. Magnetic attraction in literal form. Roni didn’t want this to end — ever. She wanted more nights like this. She wanted to get to know her. But most importantly she wanted this to be real.

 

“I have three hours max,” that seemed to kill the mood a little. 

 

“Then that just means we’ll have to have another date.”

 

“ _Friend_ date.”

 

“Whatever you say dear.”

 

Mallory was right. This _was_ a date. They both knew it was. They both wanted it to be. Roni only hoped that this attraction she felt, was real, and genuine, and not something Mallory was going to use against Victoria.

 

She couldn’t _bear_ the idea of Mallory using her that way.

 

She trusted her. She couldn’t explain why but she did.

 

Those three hours on that boat were the best three hours she’d spent in such a long time. There was wine — although Roni didn’t normally like the stuff — and strawberries. Mallory offered her a meal, she’d had _lobster_ prepared of all things — but Roni couldn’t possibly eat.

 

They talked. About nothing in-particular, but it meant so much. To the both of them. To be able to let their hairs down without consequence or judgement.

 

Roni wanted to see her again.

 

Roni couldn’t wait to see her again.

 

Mallory had her driver drop her off by the bar, so as not to rouse suspicion with Victoria.

 

“Are you sure you’ll get home safe?” She asked, having stepped out of the car too, to say goodnight.

 

“Of course! I’m a big girl — I can take care of myself.”

 

“Oh I don’t doubt that for a second.”

 

There Mal was again, smiling like she cared — she _did_ care, didn’t she?

 

“I had a really lovely evening with you,” Mallory’s words confirmed that. “Even if it is just a _friend_ date as you put it,” why did she seem so sad about that?

 

“I did too,” Roni breathed, stepping closer and taking both of her hands in her own. “I loved it — especially getting to know you.”

 

“Oh that’s just — the tip of the iceberg.”

 

Roni laughed.

 

“Well, I’m sure it was.”

 

Mallory’s smile not seemed sad,

“They call me a dragon lady you know? They say I don’t have a heart.”

 

Roni raised an eyebrow at that, 

“Well they’re wrong.”

 

Whoever _they_ were. The press, she assumed. Things like that had been said about Victoria, and they had been wrong — for the most part. She supposed it came with the line of work.

 

Thinking of her wife made her own face fall, and guilt settle in her stomach.

 

“Will you call me?” Mallory must have picked up on that.

 

Roni let go of her hands — she nodded.

 

“Sure.”

 

“Promise?”

 

She shouldn’t have promised. However _nice_ things had been. Even though they hadn’t kissed, she was still going behind Victoria’s back. The woman she loved — _used_ to love.

 

“Promise.”

 

They left things at that. Mallory got back in her car and drove away.

 

Roni got her phone out of her pocket — no calls. Well, at least she hadn’t been missed.

 

 

 

 

 


	9. Such a Mess

Roni hadn’t called her. She hadn’t _dared_ to, because she knew if she did that would be it. She’d want another date. Then another. And another. She’d so easily be able to slip, and _fall_ , and have some _love_ affair with Mallory.

 

Even if she didn’t love Victoria. Even if things had fallen apart in her marriage, she was a coward if she did that to her. If she betrayed her.

 

Roni knew she had to leave her first.

 

Except — she couldn’t.

 

Things weren’t exactly picking up, not at all, but she was _used_ to it by now. She was used to being like ships in the night. Living their own lives. 

 

She was used to seeing Jacinda and Lucy, or even _Ivy_ , more than her own wife.

 

Was her life that sad now, to admit that she’d actually miss _Ivy_ if she left? No matter how painful Ivy was to be around. She was like her daughter.

 

Except that no matter how much Roni tried to convince herself of all this, there was a part of her that knew it wasn’t right. These strange feelings in the pit of her stomach, and made up memories in the back of her mind. 

 

Her family wasn’t her _real_ family, no matter how much she tried to fool herself into thinking they were — Ivy and all.

 

Roni dismissed her feelings as loneliness. Except, well, when she thought of Mallory she felt it worsen. She felt so isolated. And these _memories_ ….they all involved Mallory.

 

Flashbacks of a life she never lived. Of a girl she never was. Of a family she never had. And a daughter that was never hers.

 

She was going crazy, and of course betrayal and craziness weren’t all that appealing to her.

 

That’s why Roni avoided Mal at all costs.

 

While she knew she couldn’t repair her marriage, she could stop the damage getting any worse. So today, after she finished at the bar, she decided to try and make things better. Cooking dinner would perhaps be a start? Not that she was any good at cooking.

 

In another life maybe, but not this one.

 

It was just so typical that as she was walking to the store, after convincing herself that making things work was the only option she had, Mallory’s car pulled up beside her on the sidewalk.

 

“Avoiding me?”

 

Roni stopped walking when she heard her voice, she turned to reluctantly look at her. Mallory was still in the car, but had wound the window down.

 

Even though Roni couldn’t see all of her, she was absolutely _breathtaking_ as usual — and it broke her heart to know she had to push her away.

 

“Not at all,” she lied. But her words and her false smile didn’t seem to convince the other woman.

 

“Then why haven’t you called me?”

 

“I’ve been busy.”

 

Roni nervously stuffed her hands into her pockets. When Mal looked at her, she felt like a kid again. All nervous and shy. All _unsure_ and _afraid_. She kind of liked the feeling.

 

“I stopped by the bar a couple of times.”

 

Had she? Roni genuinely didn’t know that.

 

“Well — like I said-“

 

“I know. You’ve been busy,” there was something in Mallory’s voice that made her seem upset. Roni hated the thought that she had caused that upset.

 

“Sorry,” Roni quickly offered. Mallory opened the car door.

 

“Get in?”

 

She shouldn’t have. She should have said no. Should have walked away. Continued with the original plan.

 

But she did. Roni got in the car more than willingly.

 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered again, when it was just them — she _was_ sorry.

 

Mallory seemed _defeated_. This strong, beautiful, and independent woman, looked so hurt.

 

“Don’t be,” she spoke, looking up and meeting Roni’s eyes.

 

There it was again — the _spark_. Roni felt it from the tips of her fingers to the bottom of her feet. Just being around Mallory made her feel more alive than Victoria ever had.

 

“I should be,” Roni insisted with a sigh. “I shouldn’t be doing this. I’m _married_.”

 

“What? You shouldn’t have a friend?” Roni could tell that Mallory was clutching at straws too. Perhaps the other woman realised it the same thing she had? That this was _wrong_?

 

This wasn’t just about getting to Victoria, was it?

 

“That was wrong of me to say,” Mallory added — clearly they both felt the same.

 

Again, Roni should have taken that as her cue to leave. She should have left things at that. Went back into the supermarket. Bought ingredients for dinner. Cooked her _wife_ a meal.

 

Instead she found herself taking Mallory’s hand in her own. It was electricity. A connection that it appeared neither woman could deny.

 

She said nothing else about it. Instead leaned closer — the smell of Mallory’s perfume hit her first. She remembered her smelling that way in the old world. Like earth and air and _fire_.

 

For some reason she had a feeling they had been here many times before.

 

Her lips grazed softy over the other woman’s. Her eyes were closed, but their connected hands kept her grounded — for it felt as though she would float away.

 

Roni felt Mallory kiss her back a little. Gentle. Tentative. Like they were _rekindling_ something, and having to be ever so gentle about it.

 

It was Roni who pulled back, and when she opened her eyes she found that Mallory had had her eyes shut too.

 

She smiled.

“I stopped loving her before you even came to town,” she finally spoke out loud, feelings she had been trying to hold inside for so long — _too_ long.

 

Mallory opened her eyes and met Roni’s. They shared an unspoken _knowing_ feeling.

 

Something that was meant to be wrong —felt so _right_.

 

“I’ll help you,” Mallory whispered.

 

“But I don’t want to hurt her.”

 

Roni _didn’t_ want to hurt her. Victoria, however cold and seemingly uncaring she was, it wasn’t always this way. _Once_ — they had been in love. And once — Roni had loved her.

 

It would be unfair to hurt her.

 

“Then leave her. Make it quick — _painless_ ,” Mallory was whispering too. Like this was some big secret, and like anybody could overhear them.

 

Except it _was_.

 

Whatever this connection was between them. Whatever this _thing_ was. It was a secret.

 

“I can’t,” Roni choked — a coward. “ I can’t just leave her. It’ll end her — especially knowing I’m with you.”

 

 _With_ her. That was the first time Roni had ever verbalised her true intentions, in _any_ way. She needed to be more honest with herself though.

 

Right now — she wanted Mallory more than anything.

 

“It will take time,” Roni added, “I can’t just do it overnight.”

 

“You don’t have to,” Mallory whispered again. “I just — missed you.”

 

Roni smiled — it felt nice to be missed.

“I missed you too,” she confessed.  
  
They both sat there, the briefest of moments felt like hours, but they were both drinking each other in.

“Come back with me tonight?” Mallory broke the silence.

 

Roni shouldn’t have said yes. Victoria would wonder. She’d _suspect_. She didn’t want her to know. Didn’t want her to find out.  
  
She couldn’t handle the arguments that would ensue.  
  
“Yes,” but there it was. The one word that would start the mess.

 

Or had the mess already begun?

 

Roni wasn’t sure.

 


	10. Nobody Else

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smut warning! ;)

Mallory’s driver dropped them off at a hotel. Of course Mallory didn’t have a house here — _yet_. It just confirmed to Roni how stupid she was being, _seeing_ her.  
  
Wasn’t she?  
  
The other woman could easily just up and leave her. 

 

Leave her with one _hell_ of a messy marriage to sort out. 

 

Although, admittedly, even without Mallory involved that was already a mess.

 

Roni followed Mallory into the hotel lobby.  
  
“I’m looking at a place to live, near Hyperion Heights,” the blonde spoke, as if reading her mind. “I just don’t want to _spook_ your wife.”

 

Roni scoffed,  
“You’ve spooked her enough already buying those warehouses.”

They waited for the elevator, stuck in this _awkward_ conversation about Victoria.  
  
“I figured as much. She’s quite a formidable opponent."

Well, it _had_ been awkward, until Mallory took her hand again.  
  
Roni looked down toward their joined hands, then up at her face. It felt right.  
  
“Let’s not talk about her,” Roni breathed, subconsciously squeezing her hand.

 

It was wrong to speak of Victoria so _blasé_ like that, when she was married to her, and when she was about to spend the night with her rival.

 

Her very _beautiful_ rival, that, _God_ , did she wish she had met ten years ago. Before she ever knew who Victoria was.

 

“After you,” Mal broke her thoughts when then elevator arrived. Ever courteous, she let Roni step inside first.

 

As the doors closed she imagined some cliche moment unfolding. That they would both finally succumb to their desires. That this tension that had been building between them would finally crackle and burst. That their mouths would crash together in some sort of heated frenzied _passion_.

 

Instead Mallory stepped closer to Roni — _really_ close. The blonde woman was head and shoulders taller than her. Beautiful. Like some sort of angel or mythical being. Almost _magical_.

 

There was a strange silence between them as the lift moved. Roni focused on the noise it made to try and ground herself.

 

This was happening.

 

This wasn’t a dream.

 

This was so very real.

 

Mallory gently moved her hand to stroke Roni’s cheek. Then, ever so slowly, leaned down and met her lips with a kiss.

 

A kiss that wasn’t frenzied but was just as passionate.

 

It happened in slow motion almost. Mallory pulled away just as the doors were opening. She had taken Roni’s hand and was leading her to her hotel room.

 

The corridor felt as though it stretched on forever.

 

The door seemed to take years to open.

 

Once Mallory had opened it though, and they both stepped inside her suite, time reverted back to normal.

 

Roni barely had chance to glance over the room. Of course it was grand, much like the woman herself. A big bed. A balcony. A whole living area. The _works_.

 

But the details were unimportant to either of them it seemed.

 

Roni’s eyes snapped back up and her — she’d never wanted a person as much in her life.

 

Without warning or explanation, _finally_ , came the frenzied passion she’d anticipated before. Roni was the one to initiate it. She leaned up and kissed her hard, throwing her hands around her neck.

 

Mallory met her kiss with equal desire, her hands threaded through her hair. Roni felt those slender fingers move over her scalp, then down her back, finally cupping her ass and pulling her flush against the other woman.

 

She only broke the kiss so she could breathe.

 

“Bed?” Roni panted. 

 

This all felt natural — right. There were no feelings of guilt or betrayal right now. Being with Mallory, it felt almost as if she’d been there with her before.

 

In another life or something.

 

“Yes,” the blonde agreed, leaning down and kissing Roni once more. 

 

They made their way across the room, and a rushed whirlwind of hurried kisses. Both women shedding their clothes as they went. 

 

Roni yelped when the back of her legs hit the foot of the bed. She fell back, just as Mal pulled her jeans off of her legs.

 

“You’re gorgeous,” she breathed, hovering over her like some etherial deity again. 

 

Roni could barely focus on what was happening.

 

“S-So are you,” she weakly offered — words weren’t her strong point right now.

 

Mal’s lips crashed over hers again. 

 

Roni’s eyes fluttered shut and she whimpered. This was utterly beyond words. She didn’t need words after all. This was like some sort of, out-of-body experience. _Blissful_.

 

She felt Mal move, and registered the fact she was straddling her by now. But when she opened her eyes she didn’t expect to see the woman already topless.

 

Their kiss broke again.

 

“Fuck,” Roni eloquently put her feelings into the word.

 

At least Mal took it the right way.

 

“I could say the same about you,” she replied with a smile. Those elegant fingers gently traced across her collarbone and over her breasts. 

 

Roni arched her back into her touch.

 

Mal leaned down and placed a kiss on her shoulder, then the other shoulder, then she slowly slipped Roni’s bra straps down her arms. Before Roni realised what was happening her bra had been slipped off completely, and Mal — beautiful, _sexy_ , angelic Mal — was sucking on one of her nipples.

 

“Fuck,” she breathed again, her heart racing. Mal touched her like she’d never been touched before.

 

She felt her take her other nipple into her mouth. Teasing her. It was Roni’s turn to thread her fingers into Mal’s hair. She was only just wrapping her head around what was happening when Mal took her breath away _again_.

 

Her hand cupped her soaked panties.

 

“I want you,” Roni felt her breath tickle her ear. She hadn’t even realised she stopped what she was doing, this whole experience was so surreal.

 

“I want you too,” Roni whispered.

 

In a moment Mallory’s lips were on hers again. _Hungry_. 

 

Those beautiful hands tore off Roni’s panties. 

 

Their kiss broke when she felt those fingers slip inside of her.

 

“Mal!” Roni whimpered, clinging to her desperately.

 

Their eyes met. She’d never felt so connected to another person before.

 

This wasn’t just sex. This wasn’t just a fuck.

 

Something passed between them — a mutual understanding.

 

So when Roni crashed their lips together again, Mallory set slow and deep pace. Rocking inside of her. Moving her full body. Rolling her hips. With each thrust those two fingers made into Roni.

 

Roni cried, and whimpered, and even when their kiss broke she nibbled at her neck.

 

She didn’t want this to stop. Never wanted this to stop. Never wanted to be out of Mallory’s arms again.

 

Her lover sped up her pace, adding a third finger, the palm of her hand ground against her clit.

 

They’d gone from making love to fucking.

 

But even fucking meant something.

 

Roni cried out softly as she came, biting Mal’s shoulder as she did.

 

This was _animalistic_ , but so right. They just _fit_.

 

The other woman didn’t even flinch when she bit her.

 

“You’re so fucking beautiful Roni,” Mal panted in her ear, slowly moving to settle beside her.

 

They needed a minute.

 

Did they need a minute?

 

Roni tried to recuperate her thoughts. Tried to process what had just happened, and what was more than likely about to happen.

 

After a moment she leaned over the other woman. Her fingers gently ran across her cheek, brushing golden strands out of her face.

“Your turn,” she whispered, offering a smile before she met her lips again.

 

Yes, tonight wasn’t about anybody else but them.

 

And it felt so _right_.

 


	11. Secrets to Share

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again for the slow updates. Adult life sucks.

How very cliche all of this was, even Roni had to admit it. She woke up before Mal had. They hadn’t quite shut the curtains right, and there was a a tiny crack of sunlight illuminating the room. It shone across Mallory, making her look very much the part of an angel.

 

At least that was how Roni saw her.

 

They’d finally caved into their desires, and Roni, well, she had no more excuses. She had finally betrayed her wife.

 

No matter how much she didn’t love Victoria, already the _guilt_ was eating her up inside.

 

While Mal slept she crept out of bed and picked up her clothes as she went. Her phone was on the bedside table.

 

If this truly was a cliche of a cheating wife, she would have had missed calls from Victoria.

 

There was one missed call, and one message, neither from her wife. Ivy?

 

_‘Meet me by the bridge  at noon. We both have secrets to share.’_

 

“What the-“

 

“Sneaking out before I wake up?” Mal’s voice cut through her. Roni dropped the phone, and pulled on her jeans.

 

“Well that was the plan I suppose,” she half laughed, although inside she was panicking.

 

Did Ivy know about them?

 

Did _Victoria_ know about them?

 

 _Shit_.

 

There was no way she could explain this without hurting Victoria. It was done now, of course it was, but was she ready for it? Was she ready to confront her so soon?

 

“Hey,” Mal seemed to sense how uneasy she was. Roni hadn’t even noticed her get out of bed.

 

Yet there she was, wrapped in a sheet, gently stroking her arm.

 

“It’ll be ok — you have me.”

 

“Do I?” Roni couldn’t help but question — she frowned at the hurt look on Mal’s face. “Sorry but — w-we barely know each other. I just cheated on my _wife_ with you.”

 

She tried not to feel hurt when she saw the light fade behind Mal’s eyes.

 

“A wife you _said_ you didn’t love,” Mal almost spat.

 

Were they fighting now?

 

“I-I don’t. I—not like that,” Roni could barely breathe.

 

At least Mallory hadn’t taken things the wrong way, and at least she seemed to understand. Because those arms Roni felt wrap around her were comforting, warm, and perhaps even _understanding —_ if one embrace could encompass all those things.

 

“I don’t love her,” Roni whispered, hiding her face in Mallory’s hair. Even now, even the morning after a night of sex, she smelled _amazing_. 

 

“You’re afraid?” Mal asked, earning a nod from Roni.

 

“You’re afraid of the unknown?”

 

Roni nodded again.

 

She pulled back so she could look at her. Even if, whatever this was, had been started on dishonesty, Roni didn’t want _any_ dishonesty between them. If this was going to work, in _any_ capacity, she had to be honest with Mal.

 

She had to open up to her, and that was the most scary part.

 

“I-It’s not just Victoria this effects,” she managed to say, as she inhaled a deep breath. Mal’s blue eyes were calming her down.

 

And the fact she just… _listened_.

 

“She has daughters. Her eldest — Ivy — she’s always had it in for me,” Roni tried to laugh at that, but struggled. She reached for her phone, which had fallen to the floor. Getting the message up on the screen she showed Mal. “And, it seems she knows.”

 

Roni chewed on her lip as she watched Mal read it.

 

“Seems a rather cryptic way of putting things,” she commented, and Roni supposed she was right.

 

Just what did Ivy mean about them _both_ having secrets to share?

 

“I know,” Roni heaved a sigh as she took the phone back from her, “She’s actually a pretty terrifying girl.”

 

Mallory laughed,

“Darling she’s never met me.”

 

That made Roni smile again, a genuine smile,

“Oh yeah — you’re _so_ scary!”

 

She couldn’t help but step closer and kiss her. God — she could kiss her all day.

 

“Do you want me to come with you?” Mal asked when their kiss broke.

 

Roni shrugged,

“Truthfully I don’t know what to do. I know I need to confront all this — and Victoria too.”

 

She was zoning out again. The panic she felt before became less of a panic, and more of a numbness. The gentle touch of Mallory’s hand against her cheek broke her out of it.

 

“I think — we should take this a step at a time.”

 

Roni met her eyes again,

“What do you propose?”

 

“Well — meet her. See what she has to say? I’ll come if you-“

 

“ _No_ you can’t come,” Roni couldn’t help but panic again, but Mal calmed her with a kiss.

 

“Then I’ll just be around the corner, conveniently waiting in my car,” she offered, but apparently it wasn’t just an offer. “I won’t take no for an answer. If this girl is as scary as you say, do you _really_ think I’d let you meet her alone?”

 

Was that Mallory’s way of saying she cared about her?

 

Despite the messed up circumstances, Roni couldn’t help but feel her heart swell at the thought.

 

“Well — when you put it that way.”

 

Roni wrapped her arms around her neck again and kissed her. Longingly. Lovingly.

 

This felt more real than anything she’d felt with Victoria.

 

“I care about you,” Mal whispered, her mouth moving to Roni’s neck. “I want you around a lot longer than one night.”

 

Roni hummed in approval, her phone dropping onto the floor again. She didn’t give a damn if it was broken. In fact, she didn’t give a _damn_ about any of it anymore. Even Ivy’s cryptic text. Having Mal in her arms, kissing her, _caring_ for her, she felt like she could take on the world.

 

Well — at least for a few minutes.

 

“Oh I’d like that too,” Roni confessed quietly, closing her eyes. “I want to get to know you.”

 

Even though it felt like they’d already known each other for a lifetime.

 

Like they’re already lived some of that lifetime together.

 

“I feel like I already know you,” Mallory spoke quietly, standing up fully so she could kiss her lips again. “I feel like I was _meant_ to know you Roni.”

 

She hummed against Mal’s mouth this time, her eyes fluttering shut once more — _lost_ but _found_.

 

“You were,” Roni whispered. “I think we still have a few hours until noon — might as well make the most of it.”

 

When her eyes opened again she saw just how big Mal’s smile was.

 

That was all the answer she needed.

 

Her lover lead her back to bed.

 

Roni was ready for this.

 


	12. Tricks and Games

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for the late update. Life has been hectic. Was at a convention then I've contracted the plague ha...

Bridge at noon — how very theatrical all this was. Although Roni shouldn’t have thought any different about Ivy, the girl had always had a flair for the dramatics. It was however, a little fun to make her wait.

 

She’d gotten there ten minutes late. Mallory, as promised, was waiting around the corner in her car. While Roni had seemingly appeared on foot.

 

“Oh — you finally decided to show up!” Ivy spotted her. The girl was leaning against the carving of the troll which adorned the stonework of the bridge. Roni had never understood what that was about, but frankly it suited the mood of this _absurd_ situation.

 

“Forgive me — some of us have things to do,” Roni tried to sass back. _Tried_ not to be intimidated by her, except a small part of her was.

 

Ivy picked up on that.

 

She smirked, and took a step closer to her Step-Mother.

 

“Shouldn’t you rephrase that to — some of us have _people_ to do?”

 

Roni’s stomach sank. She shouldn’t have anticipated anything different — Ivy knew.

 

“Did your mother put you up to this?” She couldn’t help but ask, especially since she could hear Ivy’s phone furiously ringing in her handbag. Although the girl seemed nonplussed by it.

 

Ivy just shrugged,

“She has an idea something’s going on, but, she didn’t want me to get involved.”

 

Roni couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow and ask,

“Then why _are_ you involving yourself?”

 

Even if this situation with Mallory never happened, Roni knew Ivy and her Mother weren’t exactly close. Ivy _craved_ Victoria’s approval, and never seemed to get it. Was this her way of earning a place in her Mother’s good-books? 

 

“Because,” Ivy seemed pleased with herself, and moved even closer still. “What you and my Mother fail to realise is that all of this isn’t just about yourselves.”

 

Of course this confused Roni, but she’d listen of course — it seemed she had no choice in the matter. She held her head high, even when Ivy began to circle her like a vulture.

 

She wasn’t going to be intimidated.

 

“Do you really think Mallory came here on a whim?” She seemed to laugh as she asked that.

 

“Oh — don’t tell me. You’re both in on this together?” Roni scoffed, but inside she was panicking. She was falling for Mallory, she knew she was, and she had trusted her…

 

“No!” Ivy laughed. “ _God_ no! Like I’d want anything to do with _that_ woman? No — Mallory was a means to an end. I may have let slip some information about the warehouses. I may have _wanted_ her here for a reason.”

 

Roni couldn’t quite understand what Ivy was getting at. Yes, Mallory and Victoria were competitors. Yes, it would have made sense, if Ivy wanted to hurt her mother, to help Mallory get those warehouses. However she couldn’t have had any idea about Roni and her.

 

Even Roni herself wouldn’t have pinned that down.

 

What happened wasn’t planned after all.

 

Wasn’t it?

 

“ _Look_ Ivy just spit it out,” she growled, hating the fact the girl seemed to have the upper hand here.

 

Ivy just laughed,

“You’re just how I thought you’d be. It’s amazing just how _predictable_ you are Regina.”

 

Why did she call her that?

 

Why did that name ring a bell?

 

“You don’t seem surprised?” Ivy herself actually looked astounded. “No — _who’s_ Regina?”

 

Roni tried to control her temper, but it was starting to prove difficult.

 

“Who’s Regina?” She ground out, fists balling at her sides. That earned a flat-out cackle from her Step-Daughter.

 

“ _Hilarious_ ,” Ivy managed to breathe as she doubled over in side-splitting laughter.

 

Roni didn’t get the joke.

 

Roni — was losing patience fast.

 

“I haven’t got time for this. _What_ do you know? What’s going on?”

 

Ivy’s phone rang again in her bag, and while she stopped laughing, she turned her attention to who was calling. Fishing her phone from her bag she showed Roni just who was calling — _Victoria_.

 

“Don’t you think my Mother deserves to know you’re fucking the Dragon Lady?”

 

Roni’s frown only deepened as she tried to wrap her head around this game Ivy was playing. She didn’t understand how she had found out. How she had set up this elaborate trick. Why she called her Regina. Why she called Mallory a Dragon Lady — that had been something Mal told her.

 

Not Ivy.

 

No — Mal didn’t even know Ivy.

 

“Doesn’t she already?” She almost choked on her words, as she inadvertently admitted the truth. 

 

Ivy shook her head.

 

Had Roni just played into her hands?

 

She went to answer the phone when Roni made a grab for it. They struggled for the phone, which ultimately went flying out of their grasp and skidded across the tarmac of the road.

 

Both women shot up, went to run for it.

 

But Ivy, in her haste, pushed Roni backward.

 

She fell, and cracked her head against the stone troll.

 

A head, full of unanswered questions.

 

“ _Shit_ — Roni?!” 

The world went black.

 

 


	13. Cracks

_Regina stirred in her sleep and subconsciously reached out for Maleficent. Her dragon always kept her warm at night, and the bed beside her was cold._

 

_Where was she?_

 

_“Maleficent?” She whispered, cracking her eyes open — damn the light — this tent wasn’t the best ‘bedroom’ they’d shared. But coming here had been for Henry, and Maleficent always stood by her, especially when it came to their children._

 

_“I’m here,” she heard her voice, and felt the breeze from across the ‘room’. Mal had been out again. “Lily and I were patrolling the area.”_

 

_Regina couldn’t help but sigh and she squinted against the sun. Maleficent was as beautiful as ever — glowing almost._

 

_“You’d think the sight of two dragons would scare Lady Tremaine to her senses,” she commented softly. This fight was only hers because of Henry. If it were up to her she’d have ended the stupid woman days ago, but, heroes didn’t work that way._

 

_And that’s what they all were here — now — heroes._

 

_“Apparently not,” Maleficent found her way back into bed with her. Regina curled up beside her. “I rather like the adventure though.”_

 

_“You do?” Regina chuckled gently. Maleficent stroked her hair._

 

_“Yes Little One — it reminds me of the old days.”_

 

_“What? When you burned Stefan’s Kingdom to a crisp?”_

 

_“No,” Maleficent was the one to laugh now. “When I was a lonely old dragon who fell in love with a queen.”_

 

***

 

“Roni? Roni — can you hear me?”

 

“Maybe we should take her to the hospital? She really hit her head.”

 

Was that Mallory? And — _Ivy_?

 

Why was Ivy bothered if she was ok? The last she remembered was their confrontation, and then, had she blacked out?

 

“Roni?”

 

 

“Mal?” She groaned. Her eyes cracked open — damn the light! It seared into the back of her head, the pain almost blinding.

 

She at least remembered now. She and Ivy had an altercation They both scrambled to get her phone, but she fell.

 

“Did I hit my head?” She asked quietly, every little noise felt like a pin being stuck in her head.

 

Yet in response she felt arms wrap around her, and hold her — _safe_.

 

Maleficent.

 

No.

 

 _Mallory_.

 

“Alright, I’m glad she’s ok. No harm done. Can I just go now?” That was Ivy speaking — _Drizella_?

 

“No. You can’t _just_ go. Clearly this whole thing has been blown out of proportion, and you obviously have some explaining to do,” there Mallory went, defending her it seemed. 

 

It was nice. To actually feel loved. But despite the niceties, Roni could barely piece together what had happened. Let alone try and fathom what Ivy had been saying to her.

 

“Please stay Ivy,” Roni grumbled quietly — softly. She wasn’t defeated, no, not at all. She just didn’t understand.

 

In fact she’d only just registered, through the fog, and the pain, that the three of them were in the back of Mallory’s car.

 

“I just wanted to make sure you were alright,” Ivy snapped, apparently she wasn’t going to stay. “I found out you were cheating on my mom, that’s it. We had an argument — so what? I’m not a complete heartless bitch. I made sure you were ok. And you are — _fine_?”

 

There was something in the way Mallory held her that made Roni afraid. Ivy was lying. They all knew she was. But Mal held her tighter and _tighter_ as if, well, she was holding back her frustration.

 

Roni’s head was hurting too much for her to do much else, other than piece together a few thoughts and words. Fighting was the last thing on her agenda.

 

“Will you tell her?” She managed to mumble throughout all the mess. She at least knew one thing with complete clarity, and that was that she wanted to speak with Victoria herself. She owed it to them both, didn’t she?

 

Roni couldn’t be a _complete_ asshole.

 

“I’ll give you time to get over _this_ ,” Ivy reluctantly grumbled.

 

“Oh how thoughtful of you,” she heard Mal snap at her, which caused Roni to whimper a little. Her eyes shutting — she couldn’t deal with another argument right now.

 

“Alright — I-I’ll speak to your mother when I can.”

 

Roni hadn’t realised she trailed off. She didn’t register Ivy left the car either until she flinched at the sound of the door slamming. Mal just held her tighter still.

 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to take you to hospital? I’d rather we got you checked over.”

 

Yes, Roni’s head was painful right now, but the physical pain she’d get over. No, what hurt more were all the unanswered questions and unexplained emotions running around her mind.

 

Memories of another life lived.

 

“I-I just think I’m going crazy,” she finally confessed. 

 

It wasn’t just Victoria Roni was going to have to confront, but it was Mallory too. She couldn’t keep all this inside anymore — especially knowing Ivy knew things too.

 

 _Especially_ that.

“You’re not going crazy dear — you just hit your head,” Mal tried to soothe her.

 

***

 

_“Regina he’ll be ok. Henry’s grown up now. He doesn’t need you to fight every battle for him,” Maleficent tried to calm her down._

 

_They were all here for him. Maleficent, Lily, even Hook hung around for him, as well as herself. Henry meant a lot of things to a lot of different people, but Regina, she knew she’d never stop worrying for him. No matter how old he got._

 

_He was her son._

 

_“I-I know that,” she tried to sound logical, because she knew Mal was right._

 

_Maybe it was being in another realm again that was doing this to her? Alright this place wasn’t their own version of the Enchanted Forest, but it was close enough._

 

_“I just-“ she stopped herself for a moment. She was going to say she knew how it was, to be young, and in love. Like Henry. She didn’t want him to get hurt looking after Cinderella because she knew firsthand how tough that could be._

 

_She also knew firsthand what it was like to be the Evil Queen, and to stop at nothing to seek revenge — Lady Tremaine was the token queen here, and Henry was like his Grandfather had been to Snow. Cinderella’s Prince Charming._

 

_“I just know she wouldn’t think twice about hurting him.”_

 

_Even though he was a fully grown man, Henry would always be her little boy. It was different to Lily. Regina, as much as she loved Lily, hadn’t had the chance to raise her. Besides — Henry wasn’t able to turn into a dragon at will, or breathe fire._

 

_Maleficent sensed all this of course, and her love, as usual, took Regina in her arms._

 

_“I know,” she simply whispered, letting the former Queen lay her head against her shoulder. “I know how you feel, because I felt that way about you once.”_

 

_Regina frowned a little as she pulled back. She was afraid they’d be overheard in  this damned tent, even now she didn’t want anyone but Maleficent to know just how vulnerable she felt._

 

_Love was weakness — those were words that would forever haunt her._

 

_“Don’t look at me like that. I want to protect you too Little One,” Maleficent insisted, her hand gently cupped Regina’s cheek._

 

_“You’re the only person who calls me that. I’m a middle-aged woman and you still-“_

 

_Her dragon silenced her with a kiss._

 

_“Because you are to me,” she whispered when it broke. “And you always will be. Now stop worrying and lets just be?”_

 

_***_

 

Instead of driving to the hospital, Roni insisted they went back to Mallory’s hotel room. Of course she still had a headache, she wasn’t invincible, even when she tried to be, but she knew the physical side of things could’ve been way worse.

 

She wasn’t dying.

 

“I’ll get you some water,” Mal fussed around, while Roni sat on the bed watching her. “If you won’t go to the hospital I’ll call a doctor out to you. You could be concussed or anything. God knows, you really should see-“

 

It was endearing really, to have someone care and fuss over her.

 

“Mallory,” Roni stopped her, groaning a little. “I’ve had worse injuries in my time. Please just sit with me?”

 

She patted the space on the bed beside her. The blonde reluctantly joined her, clutching a glass of water. She handed it to Roni.

 

“At least drink this.”

 

Roni rolled her eyes, but gratefully accepted the water.

 

“Fine I’ll drink the water,” she groaned, and then took a sip. It was only because Mal was staring. “We should talk.”

 

“Yes — alright. That girl is absolutely-“

 

Roni cut her off again, placing a hand on Mallory’s knee. This wasn’t about Ivy right now, or what had happened. These questions in her head. These memories. There was something more about them, and maybe, Mallory sensed it too?

 

“Does the name Maleficent mean anything to you?”

 

Roni had to know, and the confused look Mallory gave her didn’t really tell her a lot.

 

“Should it?”

 


	14. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay again, real life has been very busy lately.

This was insanity. What she had just confessed to Mallory was utter and total insanity. Perhaps she ought to have seen a doctor after all, because even she herself struggled to believe it.

 

However real it felt, how was it possible to have lived an entire other life? Part of which sounded like some warped Disney movie.

 

The Evil Queen who fell in love with Maleficent. Who magically carried her half-dragon child. While the Queen then cast a curse, and adopted the Saviour’s child. Who was also Snow White’s grandchild. Who in turn grew up and fell in love with Cinderella.

 

That was just some of the main parts she could remember.

 

“Well I don’t doubt how real it feels,” Mallory tried to soothe her. They were still sitting on her bed, and in Mal’s defence she _had_ listened and she _hadn’t_ judged. “But you did hit your head dear.”

 

Roni glanced down at the comforting hand she rested on her leg. She meant well. Roni knew she meant well. But this wasn’t just some _hallucination_ she dreamed up.

 

It _wasn’t_.

 

“Ivy has something to do with all this,” she whispered, trying her damned hardest to piece it all together. But there were parts of the picture that were blurred — faded. 

 

Like Henry — where was he? And Lily, what happened to her?

 

Then Ivy — _Drizella_ — what part had she played? Why did she seem to know more?

 

Did Victoria know?

 

No.

 

“Ivy is just a bratty girl who wants to get at her mother,” Mal tried to see the logic in all this it would appear. “We can talk about all this later — when your head feels better.”

 

Roni’s eyes snapped up to meet hers, just as Mal leaned in to meet her lips with her own.

 

Her kisses _did_ seem to help her.

 

Perhaps…she was right?

 

“I’ll have to tell Victoria,” Roni grumbled. Her marriage had escaped her, but thoughts of it brought her back to reality with a thud.

 

There was no point in dwelling over some made-up past life, when she had to address her _real_ life, and the mess within it.

 

“All in time dear.”

 

***

 

_“Regina no matter what you think, Drizella isn’t like you were.”_

 

_She didn’t understand why her love was so opposed to her helping the girl. Perhaps Maleficent never truly understood her in the first place. How could she not see that poor Drizella was just like her?_

 

_Ruled by a dominating mother._

 

_Unloved._

 

_Misunderstood._

 

_“She is,” she insisted. “Mal — she’s the girl I once was. The girl you used to know. When I was unsure and had no idea how to control my magic. I don’t want her to make the same mistakes I did.”_

 

_The dragon heaved a sigh and sat down on their bed. This damned tent was tiny, and it seemed Mal wanted to be as far away from her as possible right now._

 

_So Regina stayed standing where she was. Rooted to the spot. She had to admit it hurt when they fought, however rare it was, it had always been for good reason._

 

_Until now._

 

_“She’s nothing like you!” Mal growled, hugging herself. “There’s something about her I just can’t trust.”_

 

_Regina couldn’t believe how unreasonable she was being._

 

_“Well — the same could have been said for me!” She snapped back, “I never had a real mentor.”_

 

_She softened when she noticed the flash of hurt behind Maleficent’s eyes._

 

_For things had never really been simple between them._

 

_“I just mean-“_

 

_“I know what you mean,” her dragon grumbled, and turned her head away. She hated it when Mal got this way — stubborn. “You went to The Dark One. Even though others were more than willing to help.”_

 

_“Maleficent…” she sighed, crossing the room and sitting beside her. Regina rested her head against her shoulder._

 

_“If I can’t help Henry here. Please let me help someone who needs it.”_

 

_***_

 

When Roni woke up she realised she must have been in Mallory’s hotel room. Despite it being just a hotel room, she felt more at home here than she ever did at Belfrey Towers.

 

She now understood that home wasn’t always a place.

 

“Hello sleepyhead,” Mallory’s voice came from across the room. She sat at desk in the room, with her laptop open, almost furiously typing away. “I was worried about letting you sleep after you hit your head like that, but the doctor said it would be alright.”

 

Roni didn’t remember a doctor.

 

“Doctor?” She asked, sitting up, her hadn’t going to her head and feeling a couple of little surgical strips against her hairline. 

 

“You were already passed out by then,” Mallory finished whatever she was typing, then turned to look at her. “You didn’t think I’d let you just fall asleep on me concussed? Especially after all the gibberish you were saying.”

 

She remembered that bit, and blushed deeply.

 

Because it wasn’t just gibberish, she _knew_ it wasn’t. 

 

“Yeah,” she awkwardly laughed, sitting up in the bed. She couldn’t expect Mallory to understand it, when she didn’t even understand it herself.

 

“You feeling any better?”

 

Mal sat herself beside her on the bed, and almost naturally, Roni rested her head on her shoulder again. She felt the other woman’s arm wrap around her waist.

 

 _This_ was home.

 

“Yeah — I’ll be ok.”

 

“Sure?”

 

“Sure.”

 

She felt Mal place a kiss against her hair, and she closed her eyes. It made her feel the most loved she had ever felt — at least in this life.

 

“Although I’m pretty hungry.”

 

“I’ll order us something.”

 

They still didn’t move from where they sat. Mal squeezed her softly, the familiarness, the feeling she had been there before, it never left Roni. It caused her to tear up.

 

“Pizza?”

 

Roni couldn’t help but think of Victoria then. Those memories she shared with her wife. Their youth together. Their pizza dates. They weren’t real were they.

 

“Sounds oh so bad, but good.”

 

That made her smile, and so Roni sat up straight to meet Mallory’s eyes.

 

Looking into them she felt a connection, one she can’t really remember feeling with Victoria. Since the day she walked into her bar. Since then — the spark had grown into a flame.

 

“I need to tell her,” she whispered, referring to Victoria of course. “I need to — _leave_ her.”

 

That alone was crazy. Never mind the strange thoughts — _memories_ — she was having.

 

However loveless her marriage was, she was leaving her wife, for a stranger?

 

“Do you want me to come with you?” Mallory asked, her voice soft and comforting. 

 

No, she wasn’t a stranger.

 

“I’ll be alright this time,” Mal didn’t seem convinced by that. “I _promise_.”

 

Did she love her? 

 

The way Mallory looked at her would say so. The caring and connected gaze. The way her hand stroked her cheek.

 

Victoria never looked at her that way.

Not that she could remember anyway.

 

“Good — because I only just found you, and I don’t want to lose you.”

 


	15. Surrender

They hadn’t spoken in days. Truthfully she had just — stopped going home. Having spent the past few evenings with Mallory, in her hotel, Roni never thought to tell her wife of course.

 

Even if this affair hadn’t happened, Victoria didn’t seem all that bothered by it. It wasn’t like she tried to call her, or text, or even come around the bar.

 

Whether or not her wife knew what was going on, there was no love lost between them anymore. That much at least was obvious.

 

Roni finally plucked up the courage to text her, the day after she hit her head. She asked if they could meet. If they could _talk_.

 

So she agreed she’d come by Belfrey Towers at six that night.

 

A part of her wanted it to be in a public place, so the ground was neutral. Although in this situation she supposed she was the one in the wrong, and she _owed_ Victoria.

 

All day she had been admittedly afraid. It wasn’t about being seen as the ‘bad guy’ — she’d been through worse before. It wasn’t about her loveless marriage coming to an end either, because truthfully they should have ended things years ago, before all this mess. 

 

No, she was afraid of change. Of what was to come. Of these strange feelings and memories and the way she suddenly felt so connected to Mallory.

 

Like they were _meant_ to be together.

 

The closest thing she’d had to that was in the early days with Victoria, and now she doubted they were even real.

 

Mallory had wanted to be there at first, until Roni talked her around as to how odd that would be, and also how much it would _antagonise_ Victoria.

 

Instead her lover asked to wait outside, especially since the accident when she met with her step-daughter. But again, Roni did her best to talk her out that idea too.

 

“If I need you, I know you’re just a phone-call away,” she had insisted when she made a move to leave Mal’s side. The blonde was reluctant to let her go, literally tugging at her arm.

 

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” Mal almost seemed to pout. “I want to protect you.”

 

“Victoria can’t hurt me,” she had insisted. “Besides, what are you going to do?”

 

“I’ll scare her away like a big bad _dragon_.”

 

_A big bad dragon._

 

Roni kept thinking of that, even as she walked into the foreboding building of Belfrey Towers. She had a dragon waiting for her, a dragon who would protect her.

 

It just reminded her of the _other_ life. The life that felt more real than this one.

 

As soon as she set foot in the office, Ivy was waiting for her at the desk with a gloating smile.

 

“She’s waiting for you in her office,” she greeted her with such a smug look on her face. 

 

Roni tried not to show how much it got under her skin, although it had.

 

“Thank you,” she answered simply, opening the door to Victoria’s office. She took a deep breath as she stepped inside.

 

She could do this.

 

Her office had always been big and rather foreboding. However Victoria normally kept things minimal. Light. Airy. Tonight though the lights were dimmed, and the weather outside dim and full of rain.

 

With the mood set, Roni decided  to just go straight in for the kill.

 

“So I take it you already know?” She spoke — awkward. She stuffed her hands in her pockets, feeling like a schoolgirl being given detention. Or something like that. Victoria was so detached from her, just sitting at her desk. She hadn’t even bothered to look at her.

 

“What should I know?” She countered, her tone a little cutting.

 

There was no doubt she knew from that reaction.

 

Roni opened her mouth to speak when Victoria finally looked up at her — had she been crying? Roni thought her almost incapable of it. For months she’d barely showed any emotion, and now _this_.

 

Guilt settled heavy in her stomach.

 

“Hm? Go on — tell me then. Tell me how you’ve been _fucking_ somebody else behind my back!”

 

Roni flinched at how her voice rose, but what else had she expected.

 

“It wasn’t supposed—”

 

“Oh it’s never _supposed_ to be anything Roni. I’m not an _idiot,_ ” Victoria didn’t stand from her chair, she just clasped her hands tight together atop of the desk. As if to hold herself back from launching across it. “I’m not _blind_.”

 

If only Roni wasn’t the one in the wrong here, she would have bit back at her. She would have said just how blind she was, and how for months she acted like they didn’t even know each other, let alone be _married_ to one another.

 

“I never implied you were either of those things,” she felt pathetic saying so. “And for what its worth I am truly sorry. It shouldn’t have came to this.”

 

Victoria scoffed at her,

“Sorry for what? Having an affair, or getting caught?”

 

That caused Roni to frown. How could she have thought they ever _loved_ each other? _When_ had they ever loved each other? Why the _hell_ were they even married?

 

“Everything,” she answered feebly. “But you must admit that, we don’t love each other. Even before all this.”

 

“Don’t we?” Victoria laughed at her again, clearly hurt, she lowered her head. “I loved you Roni. I loved you right up until I found out — even a little after.”

 

She wanted to say she had a funny way of showing it. She wanted to shout at her. To tell her that she was actually a blind idiot for thinking it. Guilt stopped her though.

 

She wanted to know how she had found out. Whether indeed it had been Ivy who had told her, and when — and _why_.

 

Again she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

 

“I’m sorry you did,” was all she could offer.

 

She swore she saw her wipe at her eyes.

 

“I want a divorce,” Victoria finally stood up as she said it. Head held high, she stepped around the table and closer to Roni. “You stay away from my family — from Lucy and Jacinda.”

 

That hurt. Of course it did. She knew just how close she had once been to them, especially Lucy. There was something about her that reminded her of — _Henry_?

 

“I get the bar of course. I _bought_ the bar.”

 

Her head started to hurt again where she hit it. She didn’t know whether it was the stress of the situation, the repressed anger, or the strange feelings surfacing again.

 

Henry had been her son.

 

“You can’t take the bar,” she whispered, her hand massaging her temples gently. She tried to seem strong. Tried not to look weak in front of her, but, she felt like she was _crumbling_. Falling into a web of lies. “I-I’ll buy the bar.”

 

“You couldn’t afford it, and even if _she_ wanted to buy it for you, I wouldn’t _let_ her.”

 

Their eyes finally met for the first time, just as the venom from her wife’s words struck her.

 

The bar had been her life once. Her reason for existing. She’d built it from nothing, before she even met Victoria. It had once been something they shared. A happy memory.

 

“Fine,” she grumbled. “Take it! Take it _all_ Victoria. I’m tired.”

 

Tired was the truth, one Victoria didn’t seem to argue with either.

 

“I’ll let you come by the house tomorrow for your things. But I want them gone Roni. I want _you_ gone.”

 

There it was. Finally. A glimmer of happiness behind her wife’s eyes. A sparkle of something she hadn’t seen since they were young.

 

She didn’t say anything else, just nodded her head in agreement, then left the office.

 

She felt Ivy’s eyes on her back as she walked away.

 

Her marriage may have been over, but _this_ , whatever _this_ was, was far from over.


	16. Something More

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise twist! ;)

“I’ll buy the bar for you,” Mal instantly offered. 

 

The gesture was touching. That she would do such a thing for her. That she honestly cared — for which Roni _was_ happy, but she couldn’t help but feel sad.

 

Her marriage had just ended, and while she may not have loved Victoria, she was all she had ever known. Until Mallory walked into her life.

 

Like she was _meant_ to be there all along.

 

“She said she wouldn’t let you,” Roni confessed quietly, sitting on the bed in the hotel room. 

 

After the conversation she’d had with Victoria, of course the first thing she did was go to Mal and tell her what happened. And Mal, she had _listened_ , and she _hadn’t_ judged. She’d just wanted to be there for her.

 

Like love was _supposed_ to work.

 

“Then we’ll buy you a new bar,” she offered, taking a seat beside her. The way she took her hand reassured Roni — grounded her.

 

However much her life was going to change, and however crazy she felt like she was going, she felt _safe_.

 

Safer in the prescience of a stranger than her own wife.

 

 _Ex_ -wife. 

 

“It’s not the same,” she sighed, staring at the ground. Thinking of Roni’s broke her heart, more than any impending divorce. She didn’t give a _damn_ about money. It was the blood sweat and tears that had gone into that place. The bar had been her dream, and that was over.

 

At least, that’s what her memory told her.

 

“No — but we could make it better.”

 

Roni felt a hand move under her chin and tilt her head up. Her eyes met Mal’s blue depths, and she almost instantly felt so much more calm.

 

“We?”

 

Mallory nodded,

“Yes — as in me _and_ you.”

 

“Why would you do such a thing?” She couldn’t help but doubt all of this. Were they moving too fast? It felt so fast on one hand, but on the other…

 

“Because I care for you,” Mallory just said it so easily. “And I have a lot of land where the warehouses are. I was thinking condos, or something along those lines. But I could throw a bar in there too.”

 

Roni couldn’t help but think of those memories she’d had. The visions that told her she’d lived an entire life with this woman. She couldn’t help but think they held some grain of truth. Why else would all of this feel so right?

 

And why would Mallory offer such a thing to a person she didn’t trust?

 

“Well — perhaps it would make me happy.”

 

The way Mallory’s face lit up at that made her heart soar. The next she knew she was being kissed, which of course she wouldn’t _ever_ object to.

 

“That’s all I want,” Mal whispered, pulling back just enough so Roni could meet those blue depths yet again.

 

Admittedly and perhaps a little worryingly, her sadness seemed to grow less and _less_ the more she was around Mallory. 

 

In her mind she ought to have felt something other than this. But in her heart she was relieved.

 

And she was _home_.

 

 

***

 

_“Regina I just can’t!” Drizella whined at what would have been at least her twelfth attempt at a fireball._

 

_For Regina, she just thought back fondly, to the girl she used to be. The young queen that wandered into the dragon’s keep and couldn’t so much as summon a flame. Maleficent was more than just the woman she loved. She had helped her._

 

_Regina wanted nothing more than to help Drizella too._

 

_“You can,” she assured her gently. Knowing it was best not to tease or scoff. Those things just reminded her of her own mother, and the abuse she had put her through. All because ‘mother knew best’_

 

_She wouldn’t allow Drizella to suffer the same fate._

 

_“I can’t!”_

 

_The older woman stepped behind her. At least they were outside in the middle of a clearing, nothing could be damaged. Not that there was any danger of a forest fire with Drizella’s attempts so far._

 

_“You can,” she softly insisted. Her hand ran down Drizella’s arm, and held it out. “Open your hand.”_

 

_She hadn’t taken note of the way the girl’s body stiffened, or listened to the way her breathing suddenly seemed so heavy. Even if she had, she would have just put it down to nerves. She remembered how nervous she had been around Maleficent — among other things._

 

_“Good,” she whispered softly, genuinely glad the girl was listening. “Now focus. Put all your thoughts into it. You can do this.”_

 

_Drizella didn’t put up any resistance, she did as asked, like a model student._

 

_“I did it!”_

 

_The tiniest little fireball conjured in Drizella’s hand. It wasn’t much, but it was most definitely a start._

 

_“Good job.”_

 

_Regina should have noticed the way the girl pressed her back against her body. About how close she seemed to stand, and itch to get closer still._

 

_“With practice that can become something more,” she wanted to encourage her._

 

_She didn’t notice the look in Drizella’s eyes when she turned around to face her,_

_“Yes — something more.”_


	17. The Big Picture?

Getting her things from the apartment proved to be more difficult than she imagined. It had only been one night since things were officially over, and yet Roni was expected to pack up a lifetime.

 

Victoria had of course not been there. No, she seemed to be taking much joy in closing the bar — Roni noticed the sign on the door when she walked past earlier. She wondered just what her ex-wife was planning to do with it. Although wondering wasn’t going to help the situation, only worsen the pain.

 

Of course Mallory offered to help her move. She’d even hired a van, and arranged a storage unit for Roni — how _romantic_. Their relationship was starting during the worst of times. Although Mal promised things would get better.

 

Roni trusted her.

 

These memories only seemed to grow more intense with time, and while this was going on in her real life, she hadn’t mentioned them to Mal again. Perhaps she would in time but this was enough for now.

 

Despite this, it wasn’t just Mallory who appeared in those flashbacks.

 

Roni was still adamant that Ivy had some hand in this. That she was playing a sick and twisted game.

 

She was packing the last few pieces of her things together. Having already gotten her clothes, and main bulk of belongings out, she was left with just a few trinkets.

 

From her bedside table she picked up a small picture. It’d been taken a few years prior. When things seemed much more simple. She found it oddly surprising that it wasn’t just of her and Victoria, but Ivy too. No Jacinda. No Lucy. The three of them.

 

She’d never wondered about that as much until now.

 

As much as she loved Jacinda and Lucy, and saw them as her own kids, Ivy had been different.

 

Roni had always put it down to the messed up situation the girl had with her missing sister Anastasia, and of course the every frayed relationship she had with her mother.

 

Now though. With all these strange goings-on, and meeting Mallory, perhaps she was seeing the big picture.

 

There was more to this.

 

“You not done yet?”

 

Roni’s head snapped up to the voice in the doorway. It was Ivy. Of _course_ it was.

 

“Yes,” Roni spoke thickly, stepping up from the bed, she cleared her throat. “Yes — all done.”

 

“Good,” Ivy seemed happy about all this as she stepped closer. She snatched the picture from Roni’s hand. “What’s this?”

 

She seriously couldn’t be dealing with games right now. 

 

“What does it look like?” Roni just groaned, turning her back on the girl. She picked up the box from the bed with the rest of her things in. Mal was waiting for her outside. She needed to focus on that.

 

Mallory cared for her.

 

And she — so _deeply_ — cared for her too.

 

“How funny,” she heard Ivy, but didn’t look at her. Of course she was referencing the picture. “You know looking at this, anyone would have thought it was me you were married to and not my mother. _Strange_.”

 

This was beyond words now. Roni wasn’t going to even try and understand that last dig at her. 

 

“This game is boring now,” she grumbled, pushing past her to leave the bedroom.

 

Ivy called after her,

“It’s only just begun.”

 

***

 

_“So — how did you meet Maleficent?”_

 

_Regina had been spending more and more time with Drizella lately. The girl’s magic had come on leaps and bounds. She wasn’t yet at her own level, but with a little more time and practice, Regina had faith that she’d get there._

 

_She’d be able to defend herself against her mother._

 

_“Oh, now that is a long story.”_

 

_Dri had joined them at their camp. Still, her dragon wasn’t overly keen on the idea. Mal was still adamant she couldn’t trust her. Admittedly things between herself and her family were a little strained because of it._

 

_Maleficent hadn’t even spoken to the girl. Lily only did when she had to. Henry had tried to but things were tense, because of the woman he loved, and the battle he was fighting. But he was still the truest believer she knew._

 

_“Tell me,” Dri apparently really wanted to know, and Regina thought nothing of it when the girl curled against her side._

 

_It was cold out, despite the campfire they sat at._

 

_“Well — it was a long time ago. I was around your age, and like you, I was practising magic, but I needed to learn.”_

 

_She felt Drizella’s head rest against her shoulder, and thought nothing of it either._

 

_She focused on Maleficent. On the story — she’d not told many people it before. Yet she found, the longer she was with Maleficent, the more she enjoyed reciting it._

 

_“But you already explained you learned from The Dark One.”_

 

_“Yes — I did. But there were certain things he couldn’t teach me. To be honest, I look back and I think he thought it was funny to send me off to the dragon that burned down Stefan’s kingdom.”_

 

_“She burned down a kingdom, yet you love her?” Drizella seemed to be in disbelief._

 

_“Yes — and I was The Evil Queen, yet she loves me.”_

 

_Neither of them were perfect. Which for Regina, was all the more reason why she wanted to help Drizella, and stop her going down the same dark path she herself had followed._

 

_“Anyway,” she continued. “I was your age. I went to her. And yes — she was scary thing. But in time we grew fond of each other.”_

 

_“So — you both fell in love? While she helped you with magic?”_

 

_“Yes, I suppose that’s exactly right.”_

 

_Regina didn’t realise the girl shifted, until she felt her lips press against her cheek._

 

_She frowned, turning so she could look at her. She wasn’t sure what that was about, but Drizella certainly seemed happy. She couldn’t wipe the smile from her her face._

 

_“Good,” she breathed. “That’s good.”_

 

_She hadn’t expected her to lean in again, and try to kiss her mouth._

 

_Yet she did._

 

_And of course Regina stopped her. Her hands gently held her shoulders._

 

_This wasn’t right, not for her. She had thought she could have been a mother figure of sorts to Drizella. A mentor. Someone she could depend on. Not this._

 

_“W-What are you doing?” She asked her shakily._

 

_Regina’s heart broke when she noticed how her face fell. It turned out she could wipe the smile from her face after all._

 

_“I thought—”_

 

_Regina frowned. She wasn’t going to be cruel about it, of course not, she still cared._

_“Oh Drizella,” she whispered, moving her hand to touch her cheek comfortingly, except the girl swatted her hand away._

_Then up she got, storming off into the woods._

_“Drizella — don’t go! It’s dark out.”_

_And Regina went after her._

 

 


	18. Looking Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, so if you have read my other fanfiction, you'll know I've had stuff going on in real life lately, I've had little time and energy to write. However, I haven't given up on anything I have posted here. I'm sorry for the delay. I'm not going to just abandon anything (I know as a reader how annoying that is). I might just take a while to update sometimes...

_“I wasn’t able to find her,” Regina explained the situation to Maleficent. She’d came running back to their tent with tears in her eyes. She felt awful about the whole situation. She’d had no idea just how Drizella had felt, and she certainly hadn’t meant to lead her on._

 

_She thought of her as a daughter._

 

_“Well she surely couldn’t have gone far,” Maleficent of course offered her comfort. Despite the hour. Despite her feelings about Drizella. Regina appreciated it._

 

_She sat upon their bed and let her wife wrap her arms around her._

 

_Even now. After all these years. She still felt like a lost young girl, stumbling into the dragon’s lair._

 

_“S-She’s so lost Maleficent, I thought I was helping her but—”_

 

_“Shh,” Regina relaxed slightly at the soothing circles her wife traced upon her back. “You did help her. Regina, you helped her more than she deserved.”_

 

_There was a part of her that knew her wife was right. She should have trusted the dragon’s instinct from the start. And yet, even now, Regina felt like she had let Drizella down._

 

_“Perhaps,” she whispered._

 

***

 

The last of the boxes with her things were now in storage, and finally, she was home.

 

Home being Mallory’s hotel room.

 

Roni tossed her bag onto the bed and kicked off her shoes.

 

“Rough time?” Mallory asked from the desk in the corner of the hotel room. She was at her laptop, furiously typing, something that distracted an exhausted Roni and piqued her interest.

 

“Could say that — what are you doing?”

 

She crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed closest to her.

 

Malloy hadn’t looked up from the screen.

 

“Emailing someone.”

 

Roni frowned — _someone_? She had the urge to shut the laptop screen, but, she guessed it would have been rude to. She wanted to ask who, but, then again it was probably something to do with her business — right?

 

“I see,” she sighed, then laid back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. That at least caused Mal to stop what she was doing.

 

“It’s a good thing — I promise,” she offered.

 

The next Roni knew Mallory was leaning into her field of vision, and placed a kiss to her lips.

 

“Now — _smile_. You’re with me dear, and you’re finally out of that horrible situation.”

 

Roni knew what she was saying was right, but she couldn’t help but frown instead.

 

The cute pout Mal gave her in response however was enough to make her lips briefly curl into a smile.

 

“You’re cute when you pout,” she whispered, unable to take her eyes off of her. Mallory truly was gorgeous. In this life, in their last life — whether or not that was real — Roni felt connected to her, even when she was troubled.

 

Nobody had ever given her butterflies quite like Mal.

 

“ _Cute_ isn’t really what I was aiming for,” Mal teased, earning another quick kiss from Roni. She leaned up and captured that beautiful mouth.

 

“Ivy is a bitch,” Roni sighed, eventually revealing what was wrong.

 

“Tell me something we don’t know dear.”

 

Mal sat on the edge of the bed beside her, willing to listen to what had happened.

 

“As right as you are, she’s up to something,” Roni sat up as she mulled over her exchange with Ivy. Something wasn’t right with that girl…

 

“What makes you say that?”

 

Roni couldn’t explain it really. The whole thing had been bizarre.

 

“Well she was her normal passive-agressive self. I told her that her game was boring. She’s always playing games with me Mal,” she heaved a sigh, showing just how tired she had gotten. “But then she mentioned, before I left, it had only just begun.”

 

She couldn’t help but scoff at that last bit. She could her the way Ivy said it, echoing around in her mind — haunting her.

 

Mal’s arms enveloped her again.

 

“Ignore her Roni,” she whispered, kissing the top of her hair.

 

Roni herself hadn’t realised just how much of a toll these past few months had taken on her. For the first time, and only I the safety of Mallory’s arms, she cried.

 

And Mal — she held her, _protected_ her.

 

“You’re safe here with me Little One.”

 

Little One?

 

Even that struck a chord in her.

 

It made her cry harder.

 

“Hey it’s ok,” Mal just soothed her more. Her hands stroking her hair. “It’s ok forget her Roni. Forget them all.”

 

But that was the problem. Roni couldn’t forget. She felt like she had forgotten something so important, and now she was only just beginning to remember.

 

In the safety of Mallory’s arms.

 

In the warmth and security of _home_.

 

“I-I know. I’m being stupid,” Roni whispered, but kept her face buried against the crook of the blonde woman’s neck. Her scent grounded her. Made her feel at peace.

 

“Not at all,” Mal assured, with her hands on her back again now, drawing circles.

 

They remained there. Moments felt like hours until Mallory broke the silence.

 

“I have good news,” she offered. “The email I was sending. Well — there might be a way around buying back your bar.”

 

Things were starting to look up.

 

 

 


	19. No Buts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys. First off, I'm sorry for not updating in forever. I am going to try. This year, so far, has been very testing for me. A lot of bad things seem to have happened, and I've suffered a few bereavements in the family too...truthfully I lost the will to write for a very long time.  
> However, I'm going to try. I've not long came back from a trip to California with one of my friends, who I know reads this. She asked if I could try to do an update, and here it is...  
> I'm sorry if it sucks but I'll keep going until I finish. Same with my other stuff...I just truly hope my passion for writing comes back soon!  
> Sometimes things happen that hurt us so deep it kind of crushes your spirit, but, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!  
> Onto some dragon queen...........

Roni trusted Mallory throughout all of this. Perhaps that trust was blind. Maybe the visions in her head were’t as real as she thought after all? But however foolish it made her, Roni trusted her gut. She’d always gone by her gut instinct and this was no exception.

 

Mal had said she had a way of buying the bar. That was enough — her heart told her so.

 

It had been little over a week since then. Since she’d left her wife, since she’d moved into the hotel with Mallory, and since her visions started getting worse and worse.

 

Or clearer and clearer it would seem.

 

Roni tried not to mention them any more to her ‘new’ love. She didn’t want to frighten her, but she did often wonder…

 

If these visions weren’t real, why had things moved so fast between herself and Mallory?

 

Why did the other woman care for her so _deeply_?

 

Why did they have this _connection_?

 

If the past life Roni saw wasn’t real, nobody in there right mind would go through all of this for someone they just got involved with, right? Especially a smart and successful business woman such as Mallory.

 

She’d truly gone out of her way to find a means of buying back the bar. Although she still hadn’t revealed all the details as to _how_ , Roni knew she had some kind of _magic_ at play.

 

“So are you ever going to tell me what the plan is?” She asked Mal about it for at least the twelfth time that week, because of _course_ she’d been obsessing over the situation. After all, when she wasn’t with Mal she was alone — _without_ a bar to run — and Victoria seemed to have a handle on their divorce.

 

Roni had nothing else to occupy herself with, and too much time on her hands.

 

“All in good time my dear,” Mal had simply chuckled in response, which made Roni roll her eyes.

 

“But Mal-“

 

“No buts,” Mallory silenced her with a kiss. Alright, the kiss worked, but it didn’t mean Roni was going to forget about it.

 

“I trust you but-“

 

“What did I say about no buts?” Mallory teased, this time gently placing a finger over her lips. “Just trust me Roni. I’m not keeping anything from you on purpose. I just don’t want to give you anything extra to worry about.”

 

Roni frowned — didn’t Mal know that all she did lately was worry? Not just about the bar, or her marriage, or their very _new_ relationship. But she worried about her own sanity. About the memories in her head. About whether or not she was losing it.

 

“I know. I just — can’t help it,” she sighed. She sat down on the desk beside Mallory’s laptop. Lately she lived in this hotel room, and when Mal wasn’t working she was pretty much here all the time too.

 

Mallory seemed to pick up on her mood and Roni was glad of it.

 

“Let’s go out — a date if you want to call it that. We deserve it, don’t we?”

 

Roni’s worry faded for a moment, and for the first time in days she smiled. A full and very real, _genuine_ , smile.

 

“Really? Wait — don’t think a date will make me forget about all this Mallory.”

 

She was rewarded with a smile of equal measure, and a kiss to the back of her hand.

 

“Of course I don’t. I promise you will know everything when the time is right. I only want you to be happy Roni. I want us both to be happy — _hopefully_ together.”

 

“ _Always_ together.”

 

**

 

_Being held by her love, even in this tiny bed, in this god awful tent, it soothed her. But Regina couldn’t ignore the guilt that settled in her stomach, and Maleficent must have realised that too. Regina was so sure she knew — it was why her dragon held her even tighter._

 

_“You haven’t slept properly for days,” Mal whispered, pressing a kiss against her forehead. Those simple gestures Maleficent made always warmed Regina’s heart, but worry stopped her relaxing completely._

 

_They’d came here for Henry. To help him. To protect him and his soon to be family._

 

_Regina had put them all at risk in trusting that damned girl. Even with good intentions, Drizella now knew things Regina wished she didn’t._

 

_“I wish I knew what she was up to,” she quietly confessed, but she didn’t like hearing Maleficent groan in distain. She understood her dragon had never approved of Drizella’s presence in their lives, and for good measure too she supposed. But Regina didn’t need to hear an ‘I told you so’, or even have a reaction as such._

 

_“She’s just a girl Regina.”_

 

_“I was just a girl too - once,” she countered, knowing Maleficent didn’t really take any of this seriously._

 

_Drizella did hit so close to home for Regina. She remembered herself, being so young, and so full of revenge. Look where it got her, she cast The Dark Curse - what would Drizella do?_

 

_“I just feel as though I’ve made things worse. For Henry — for all of us,” she continued, full of regret and shame._

 

_Her wife relinquished her grip, and pulled away just enough to look at her face. Those blue eyes always calmed Regina. Even in the darkest of times._

 

_“Whatever she tries to do, she will not succeed. Even though I know you had good intentions, nothing bad will happen.”_

 

_Regina wanted to trust her love, oh how she wanted to, but the feeling in her gut made her want to vomit. Even with all of them here. If Drizella was truly scorned, and if she truly wanted revenge, Regina had no doubt she’d find a way._

 

_“I suppose,” she whispered, and lowered her head, only to have Maleficent move her chin back up so their eyes would meet once more._

 

_“Regina. I promise. She won’t harm a hair on Henry’s head - or yours for that matter.”_

 

_Regina wasn’t worried about her own safety in this._

 

_“No,” she smiled sadly as she whispered. “You promise me that you keep Henry and his family safe. Lily too. Me — I can handle her.”_

 

_Her wife raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to protest, only to have Regina kiss her._

 

_“Promise me?” She breathed only once the kiss had broken. She was desperate. Frightened. And her hands clung to Mal’s arms for dear life._

 

_Maleficent nodded, bringing a hand up to cup Regina’s cheek._

 

_“Alright — I promise. But it won’t come to that.”_

 

_“No buts,” Regina whispered, leaning into her touch. Maleficent would listen to her, she knew she would. “Just promise.”_

 

_“I promise.”_


	20. Not a Secret

_The camp felt eerily quiet as of late. Since Drizella ran off the atmosphere had changed._

 

_Maleficent reassured Regina time and again that there was nothing to worry about. While she knew her wife meant well, this was one of the few things they couldn’t agree on._

 

_Drizella was a threat, a dangerous one. Maleficent didn’t seem to appreciate that._

 

_Cinderella was getting closer and closer to her due date, which only served to worry Henry more. She hated seeing her son in such distress. Regina would do anything to help him be rid of his worries._

 

_While her family rallied together — and since Maleficent promised she would protect them — Regina snuck away quietly, in hopes of tracking down Drizella Tremaine. She hadn’t told her wife of course, for she’d only try to stop her._

 

_As she made her way out of the camp, and down the pathway that lead to the forest, she heard an inhuman cry. A dragon’s cry._

 

_Maleficent knew she was gone._

 

_Regina’s only option was to find the girl, and fast, before her wife did something hasty._

 

_She had no true idea where Drizella would be, but her heart told her to head toward the manor of Lady Tremaine. Regina figured the girl would either want to kill her mother, or join her._

 

**

 

This was their first official date. Not a _friend_ date. Not a _secret_ date. They weren’t hiding. And to Roni…she was finally free.

 

She felt no shame when she headed out of the hotel hand in hand with Mallory. This was more real than anything she’d ever experienced with Victoria.

 

Visions or no visions Roni knew this was _true_ love. That’s what her gut said — or rather, her _heart_.

 

“So where are we going?” She asked, even more curious when they didn’t get into Mallory’s car.

 

The blonde looked down at her and Roni’s breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t help but stare, she caught herself doing so too often lately. Mal didn’t seem to mind though.

 

“Well, you remember the boat from our first date?”

 

Roni nodded. The lake was a drive away. Did Mallory expect them to walk all that way?

 

“Hm.”

 

“Well I recall you didn’t eat. And I could tell, my big bad girl was nervous — weren’t you?”

 

The flicker in Mal’s eyes made Roni playfully dig her in the side. But she leaned up to kiss her.

 

“I’m your big bad girl?” She whispered, unable to hide her smile as she lingered close to Mal’s mouth.

 

“You are,” Mal laughed a little. She felt her hands running through her hair — Roni loved it when she did that.

 

“I am,” she hummed with a smirk, kissing her again. She wrapped her arms around Mallory’s neck. “So your big bad girl didn’t eat…”

 

“No, she didn’t,” Mal teased, resting her forehead against Roni’s.

 

God this felt so right. So _real_.

 

“So,” Mal continued. “I thought we could finally have that meal. And maybe stay over?”

 

It was almost too good to be true. Roni wasn’t used to such romantic things, well, not in this life at least.

 

She nodded eagerly, stepping back so she could take her hands again.

 

“I’d love that.”

 

“I’d love it too Little One.”

 

Her heart skipped a beat again.

 

Too good to be true indeed.

 

“Ugh — I thought you both had a room already?”

 

There, from the other side of the street, was Ivy. Roni hadn’t seen her since the day she cleared her stuff out of the apartment. She hadn’t wished to see her either…

 

She didn’t want to play any more games, but she had a feeling that Ivy wouldn’t let her stop. Not until it was game over.

 

 

**

 

_It felt almost too easy. Regina found her by one of the grand windows, peering inside like a lost puppy-dog._

 

_“Drizella,” she whispered, just loud enough for the girl to hear._

 

_“Regina?!” Drizella wasn’t pleased to see her. Not that Regina was expecting a warm welcome. The girl had drawn her hands, fireballs forming in each palm, ready to be thrown in her direction._

 

_She raised an eyebrow. Drizella wasn’t as strong as she liked to think she was. Regina could easily deflect such things, but she didn’t want to goad her further._

 

_She might have been new to magic, but Drizella was still formidable with the right idea in her head._

 

_“I’m not here to fight you,” she tried to talk her down, holding her hands up calmly. “I came here to-“_

 

_“To what?!” It seemed Drizella was acting entirely with heart. “To laugh at me? What? You think I’m in love with you or something?! Think I need you?!”_

 

_Regina frowned,_

_“No — this has nothing to do with what happened the other night. I might not share you feelings exactly but I do care about you.”_

 

_Drizella just scoffed, but it seemed that was enough to get her to stand down. The fireballs were gone._

 

_“You don’t care about me,” she spoke, Regina recognised the hurt in her voice. She knew that hurt all to well. The betrayal of a mother. The years of manipulation and lies._

 

_“I assure you I do,” she sighed, inching closer to her. “That’s why I’m here. I don’t want to see you get yourself hurt.”_

 

_Drizella’s face changed from anger to — sadness? No. It was a face that craved love. One that wanted to disbelieve it all, but her heart was still pure._

 

_“Then help me.”_

 


End file.
